Livestream video is coming to the NC legislature during its special COVID-19 meetings
The North Carolina legislature isn’t in session right now, but a special House committee has been meeting about the state’s COVID-19 response. All the lawmakers can connect to a video teleconference meeting, but the public can only hear the audio.
That’s soon changing.
House Speaker Tim Moore, a Kings Mountain Republican, announced Thursday that video of remote committee meetings will be streamed on the General Assembly website via YouTube starting April 14. There are two meetings of the House Select Committee on COVID-19 scheduled for that day. The committee working groups on Health Care and Economic Support Remote will both meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
The working groups are chaired by House members from both political parties as they plan the legislative response to COVID-19 when the entire General Assembly returns on April 28 for its short session. Earlier this week, House budget leaders said the budget aspect of the session may not happen until July or August, but the legislature will likely return long enough to pass COVID-19 relief bills.
“We continue to expand our remote committee capability in the North Carolina House to prepare a legislative response that delivers much-needed help to people who we know are really hurting right now,” Moore said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
“Remote House committees are working to provide solutions for the unprecedented challenges facing North Carolina families, and we encourage every community to watch their representatives at work putting our state on a strong road to recovery,” Moore said.
Local governments livestream
Local governments are already broadcasting their teleconference meetings — Wake County Commissioners, Raleigh City Council and Durham City Council members were shown in their homes and offices while the public watched the meetings online this week.
But those local governments also livestream their regular meetings all year, too, before the coronavirus pandemic led to the statewide stay at home order and other restrictions on gatherings.
The General Assembly, on the other hand, did not livestream any of its meetings — both floor sessions in the House and Senate or committee meetings. They do stream audio, which complies with state open meetings law. However, now that they are setting up the technology for livestreaming during the COVID-19 response, it could potentially stay in place once the crisis subsides.
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 4:12 PM with the headline "Livestream video is coming to the NC legislature during its special COVID-19 meetings."
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