Sunday, June 23, 2024

Transparency check-in: Streaming at the Statehouse (2024)

Since 2022, the South Carolina Policy Council has annually tracked the livestreaming rates of state legislative committee meetings in an effort to encourage transparency.

2024's top performing committees Using data provided by legislative staff, we measured how often each of the House and Senate legislative committees streamed during the second year of the 2023-24 regular session, which ran from January 9 to May 9.

One committee in particular - the House Ways and Means Committee - stands out.

In addition to receiving bills on taxes, revenue and other matters, Ways and Means is the starting place for South Carolina's new budget each year and, accordingly, holds far more meetings than other committees.

We are pleased to report that the House and Senate Judiciary Committees streamed all their meetings.

Others most needing improvement are the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Fish, Game and Forestry Committee.

Comparing 2024 streaming numbers with 2023 Three committees maintained perfect streaming records in 2024, compared to two in 2023 The average streaming rate of the top five performers in 2024 is 98.9%, compared to 93.6% in 2023 Of the committees primarily dealing with legislation, only one did not stream any meetings in 2024, whereas two committees did not stream their meetings in 2023 Our recommendation The goal is for every House and Senate committee to livestream all their meetings. 

https://www.scpolicycouncil.org/transparency_check_in_streaming_at_the_statehouse_2024

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