Legislatures live via the web.

• Author: Rose, Gene
• Position: Includes Sen Julie Rose's proposal to allow lawmakers to participate in sessions through teleconferencing

A number of states keep citizens up-to-date with audio and video coverage of legislative sessions.

Susan Esvelt felt passionate about House Bill 2418 and worked hard to prepare testimony for a Washington Senate Education Committee hearing. In her search for more information on the bill, friends suggested she turn to her new computer.

"My testimony changed that night," she said.

What Esvelt discovered that evening was TVW, a private nonprofit service providing Washington citizens unedited coverage of state government through cable television and the Internet. Because TVW provides live and archived events of all legislative proceedings online, it's becoming an important communication tool for citizens like Esvelt, who lives in a rural area outside Snohomish about an hour and a half away from the capital. With Internet access, a modem with a minimum 28.8 speed and free RealMedia software, citizens across the country are tuning in with their personal computers to find out what their state lawmakers are doing.

With notepad in hand, "I listened to the testimony of everyone at the education committee hearing the night before and what I learned was incredible," said Esvelt, who modified her testimony for the following evening based on what she heard over the Internet. "For accuracy and information, there is nothing better than this."

While TVW can boast of numerous accomplishments and awards in bringing government closer to state constituents, TVW President Denny Heck, a former state legislator, says he is most proud of the audio and video service over the Internet. "In all the things we've tried to do for the public in terms of service, nothing comes close," he says.

TVW took the first step in January 1996 when it provided audio of videotaped events through the Internet and broadcast the governor's State of the State address live. When word of the service became known, about 1,000 people a month accessed the Internet site.

Fast forward two years later. In the first two months of 1998, 24,000 viewers and listeners logged onto the TVW site that now includes real-time video and archives of all legislative events.

Richard Brown, assistant clerk of the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature, said a presentation Heck made at an NCSL meeting served as motivation to continue the "longstanding commitment to provide legislative coverage to all Nebraskans." The unicameral body has made some form of television coverage available to constituents since the 1970s.

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