Lawmakers meet on the last day of the 2024 legislative session. Not pictured: Secretary of State Joni Albrecht, Ben Hansen, John Lowe and Tony Vargas. April 18, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN – A new state-run video archive of legislative floor debates and committee hearings in Nebraska will be operational on Jan. 8, when lawmakers reconvene for the 2025 session.
Lawmakers succeeded Bill 254 in 2023, sponsored by Senator Tom Brewer of north-central Nebraska, to create the digital archive. He was one of several senators who supported a similar proposal over several years. Brewer said the change would help Nebraska live up to the ideals of George Norris, whose idea of the Unicameral was to promote transparency in government.
“Norris said that to obtain and maintain good government it is necessary that the freedom-loving, educated, intelligent people should be forever vigilant to carefully guard and protect those rights and freedoms,” Brewer said in April 2023.
State Senator Tom Brewer of north-central Nebraska. December 10, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
The archive was required to be established prior to the start of the 2025 session on January 8, per LB 254.
At that time, there will be a new “comprehensive video portal” accessible from the Legislature’s homepage at nebraskalegislature.govsaid Brandon Metzler, the Legislature’s clerk, whose office will maintain the digital archive.
“We really want to allow people to stay connected to the legislature as it’s happening,” Metzler told the Nebraska Examiner.
‘The world is video’
Nebraska Public Media already streams floor debates and committee hearings live, but does not maintain a public archive.
Metzler said the Legislature has an internal policy to review videos for transcripts or committee hearings that lawmakers may have missed.
Brandon Metzler, Clerk of the Nebraska Legislature. December 8, 2023. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
Nebraska was one of about four states without an internal, public record of legislative proceedings before Brewer’s bill passed last yearaccording to the National Council for State Legislatures. The other states are Alabama, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Sen. John Arch of La Vista, the chairman of the Legislature, said the archive will be a “great benefit” to Nebraskans. The videos Arch noted can help discern body language, tone and intent that aren’t as easily captured in the legislature’s written transcripts.
“The world is video,” said Arch. “The world doesn’t print much anymore.”
A major advantage of the archive is that videos are available almost immediately. It could take months before written transcripts, which will continue to serve as the official record of the Legislature, are available.
The video archive policy
The Legislature’s top committee, the Board of Governors, voted unanimously on Oct. 28 to approve the archives policy, which requires videos to be posted online within two business days and watermarked with the legislative seal.
Speaker John Arch of La Vista addresses state lawmakers during a legislative retreat at the Nebraska Innovation Campus on Dec. 7, 2023, in Lincoln. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
The repository is intended for educational and informational purposes only. The policy prohibits the use of archived videos for political or commercial purposes.
Archived videos are kept online for eight years after posting, which Metzler said is subject to change and is more of a security measure for storage and usage costs.
The Legislature reserves the right not to publish a video for any reason, which Metzler and Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar, a member of the Board of Governors, said would only be used in extreme situations, such as in the case of a medical emergency.
“It’s not a censorship mechanism,” Metzler said. “It’s not like anyone said anything that would make the Legislature look bad, or make the senator look bad. It is nothing in that capacity.”
Slama, who declined to stand for re-election this year, said parts of the policy could be clarified in the future. She said she expected there will be more cost-efficient ways to store video in the next eight years.
Lawmakers also passed an amendment proposed by Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha to ensure closed captioning is available in both English and Spanish.
Metzler said users can see what’s being streamed live and what’s archived. Videos are searchable by bill number and committee.
‘A very important resource’
Arch noted that some organizations have attempted to record legislative proceedings before, but this will be the first archive maintained through the Legislature.
For example the Nebraska Progressive Legislative Study Group created an archive of most committee hearings and floor debates that occurred during the 108th legislative session in 2023-2024, including the summer special session on property taxes.
Cindy Maxwell-Ostdiek from Omaha. (Photo courtesy of Cindy Maxwell-Ostdiek, by Glenda Niksick)
Cindy Maxwell-Ostdiek, a 2022 legislative candidate and co-founder of the study group, said a core group of about 10 volunteers began livestreaming and hosting recorded legislative proceedings on the Study group YouTube page in 2022.
However, the group could only livestream one event at a time, which sometimes meant choosing between hearings.
In Nebraska, every bill or policy resolution is heard, and there are fourteen standing committees in addition to the Board of Directors and other special committees that consider legislation.
“We strongly believe that it is the right and responsibility of every Nebraskan to be an active member of the ‘second house,’” said Maxwell-Ostdiek. “The agency will be a very important resource for that education and advocacy.”
The Nebraska Progressive Legislative Study Group does not plan to continue livestreaming at this time and is looking forward to the rollout of the new program, she said.
Accountability and transparency
Maxwell-Ostdiek said she is still concerned about the eight-year shelf life of videos and the fact that the policy only covers proceedings from 2025 onwards. Brewer’s bill opened up the possibility of adding archival footage from previous legislative sessions, such as broadcast by Nebraska Public Media and collected by the clerk’s office.
“That is the intent of the legislation,” Maxwell-Ostdiek said, referring to the preservation of historical videos. “I think the Executive Board will hopefully come back to that and correct that.”
State Sens. Julie Slama of Dunbar and Mike McDonnell of Omaha. August 8, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
Metzler said the plan at this time is to archive the proceedings in the future, but the Board could spend time and resources adding past archives that need to be processed and adding multilingual closed captioning.
Slama described the archive as an “overdue victory” for taxpayers.
“I’m really hopeful that people in Nebraska will use it and hold their elected officials accountable for their behavior that is captured on video,” Slama said.
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