House Increases Transparency

There are two big changes in this year’s General Assembly session that will change significantly your ability to know what your legislators are doing, and both involve the House of Delegates catching up to the Senate.

The first is last month’s decision by House Republicans to end their practice of holding secret votes. Two years ago they stopped recording votes in subcommittees, arguing that it would make the House more efficient, and allowed subcommittees to vote to kill bills. That combination allowed bills to be defeated without any recorded vote. The only way to find out what happened to a bill would be to have been at the subcommittee meeting, some of which are held as early as 6:30 AM. House Republicans have agreed to allow legislative staff to record how subcommittee members have voted, and we’ll bring you the results of those votes here on Richmond Sunlight.

The second big change is today’s decision by House Republicans to provide audio and video of the House floor sessions. The leadership has long opposed allowing the public to observe their proceedings, arguing that it would lead to grandstanding on the House floor, and defeated bills introduced by Democrats and Republicans alike that would have changed that practice. (Note that the Senate provides a live video feed of floor sessions, and no such thing appears to have happened there as a result.) But House Speaker Bill Howell has apparently changed his mind, and the legislative staff is moving ahead with the provision of live, streaming audio of House sessions beginning with the new session.

House Republicans deserve a great deal of credit for these improvements. They’ll provide enormous benefits for citizens like you who want to keep up with the General Assembly and keep their government accountable.