Committee hearings can be re-watched on Delaware General Assembly website
DOVER – Thanks to recent technology upgrades at Legislative Hall, the General Assembly will be able to live-stream committee meetings on its website when the legislative session resumes in January.
The Delaware General Assembly was one of the last legislatures in the nation to livestream video of session when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in March 2020. Forced to meet virtually for the first time ever, both chambers of the Delaware General Assembly began livestreaming session video to YouTube in May 2020. Last January, those livestreams were made available directly on the General Assembly website for the first time, while a hybrid option was in use by May.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, however, committee meetings held outside of the legislative chambers have been conducted exclusively via Zoom, giving the public an opportunity to fully participate in the legislative process, despite Legislative Hall being closed to the public.
Those virtual committee hearings resulted in record participation rates as members of the public found greater ease in attending a virtual committee meeting than one held in-person at Legislative Hall. Virtual committee meetings routinely drew more than 50 members of the public, while several drew more than 100, and a few surpassed 500 participants.
With the Legislature hoping to return in-person in 2022, both chambers are eager to launch a hybrid model that preserves the virtual participation option, while also accommodating in-person public participants at the same time.
With the recent installation of monitors and camera equipment in six hearing rooms, future committee meetings now can be held in a hybrid format, giving Delawareans who wish to offer public testimony more flexibility than ever before.
“Virtual committee meetings were a necessary function during the pandemic to allow the Legislature to continue operating while giving residents the ability to still participate in the government process. What we found was that people liked the convenience of being able to attend committee meetings and provide comment online. We saw the proof in record committee attendance and participation during the past year,” said House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf.
“We recognized the vast improvement in transparency and convenience that the online meetings provided to working Delawareans. Currently, we are planning to return to in-person committee meetings, but by offering an online option, we are combining both worlds as we continue to modernize our legislative process.”
“We all long for normalcy, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t retain some of the things we learned during the pandemic. When we made virtual participation possible for Delawareans, we increased interest in the legislative process, got more robust feedback on critical legislation, and made it possible for stakeholders to seamlessly move from one virtual committee hearing to another,” said Senate President Pro Tempore David P. Sokola. “For those who miss being back in the building, we can’t wait to welcome you back as public health protocols permit. But for those who appreciated having the flexibility to participate in the legislative process on your lunch break or as you were picking up the kids at school, that accessibility will remain in place.”
While a decision about an in-person return to Legislative Hall – and the use of a hybrid virtual/in-person committee hearings – will depend on the public health guidance as of early January, the public will be able to watch committee hearings live and later playback recordings of the proceedings on the General Assembly website.
The General Assembly will return to session on January 11, 2022.