Post by ScottR@KTP on Jan 5, 2010 23:30:17 GMT -5
C-Span Seeks Live Coverage of Democratic Meetings
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Update | 6:02 p.m. A spokesman for Senate majority leader Harry Reid has just released a statement saying Senate Democrats are “committed to transparency in the legislative process.” The statement did not specifically agree to C-Span’s request to allow the negotiations on health care to be televised.
C-Span has asked Democratic leaders to open their negotiations on a final health care bill to live television coverage. But despite promises of transparency, Democratic leaders may be reluctant to agree.
Brian Lamb, the chief executive of C-Span, made the request in a letter to Congressional leaders on Dec. 30. He released the letter on Tuesday after it appeared on Politico.com, a political news Web site.
“President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation’s editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation’s health care system,” Mr. Lamb wrote.
“Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between the Chambers,” he added, “we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American.”
The House and Senate are preparing to abandon the traditional approach of melding their health care bills in a conference committee, which would allow for some floor debate — and television coverage.
But that approach would also give Republicans a chance to filibuster and stall the process. So Democratic leaders have decided to hash out their differences on their own, which probably means most of the negotiations will take place behind closed doors with White House officials.
Mr. Lamb said in an interview that C-Span had been able to cover final negotiations on most bills, with the exception of appropriations. He said he wrote the letter because C-Span had already covered hundreds of hours of the health care process, and he wanted to make sure that leaders knew C-Span was interested in following it to the end.
Much of the negotiating that led to passage of both the House and Senate health care bills, however, was done in private.
As yet, Democratic leaders have not responded to C-Span’s request. But it has given Republicans an easy target, especially since President Obama specified so many times in the presidential campaign that under his administration health care negotiations would be conducted with C-Span watching.
Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, said in a statement, “C-SPAN’s role in fostering government transparency is so significant that on several occasions during the last presidential campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) pledged that health care reform negotiations would be broadcast on C-SPAN so ‘the American people will know what’s going on.’”
He added: “These secret deliberations are a breeding ground for more of the kickbacks, shady deals and special-interest provisions that have become business as usual in Washington. Too much is at stake to have a final bill built on payoffs and pork-barrel spending.”
Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana and chairman of the House Republican Conference, issued a statement saying the C-Span request gave Mr. Obama “one last chance” to keep his promise.
At a visit to Google in 2007, Mr. Obama noted that the Clintons had made a mistake in the early 1990s by designing their health care plan “in isolation from the American people.”
“We will work on this process publicly,” he added. “It will be on C-Span. It will be streaming over the Net.”
At another point during the campaign, Mr. Obama argued that if a member of Congress was “carrying water for the drug companies,” for example, television coverage would expose it. “You can shame Congress into doing the right thing if people know what’s going on,” he said.
As it happens, the White House itself has bargained with the drug companies behind closed doors. And it’s worth noting that when Republicans were in charge, they were secretive at numerous junctures, including the negotiations on the Medicare prescription drug plan, when they locked most Democrats out of their deliberations.
In July, while Congressional leaders were negotiating their health bills in private, Mr. Obama was asked at a news conference about the lack of transparency on the issue, in light of his earlier promises.
He said that the “kickoff event” for the health care bill had been held in the White House in front of cameras, but added: “At a certain point, you start getting into all kinds of different meetings.” He said that if members of Congress “want those on C-Span, I would welcome it.”
“I don’t think there are a lot of secrets going on in there,” he added.
At a news briefing today, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said he had not seen Mr. Lamb’s letter and could not comment.
Mr. Lamb underscored that he had addressed his letter to Congressional leaders, not the White House, since the coverage involves Congress.
Here is his letter to Congressional leaders:
As your respective chambers work to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate health care bills, C-SPAN requests that you open all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings, to electronic media coverage.
The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of these sessions LIVE and in their entirety. We will also, as we willingly do each day, provide C-SPAN’s multicamera coverage to any interested member of the Capitol Hill broadcast pool.
Since the initial introduction of the America’s Affordable Health Care Act of 2009 in the House and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in the Senate
C-SPAN has televised literally hundreds of hours of committee hearings, markups and floor debate on these bills for the public to see. And importantly, we have archived all of this video for future generations to study in the C-SPAN Video Archives.
President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation’s editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation’s health care system. Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between the Chambers, we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American.
We hope you will give serious consideration to this request. We are most willing to employ the latest digital technology to make the cameras, lights and microphones as unobtrusive as possible.
Please contact me if I can answer any questions.
Sincerely,
Brian Lamb
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Update | 6:02 p.m. A spokesman for Senate majority leader Harry Reid has just released a statement saying Senate Democrats are “committed to transparency in the legislative process.” The statement did not specifically agree to C-Span’s request to allow the negotiations on health care to be televised.
C-Span has asked Democratic leaders to open their negotiations on a final health care bill to live television coverage. But despite promises of transparency, Democratic leaders may be reluctant to agree.
Brian Lamb, the chief executive of C-Span, made the request in a letter to Congressional leaders on Dec. 30. He released the letter on Tuesday after it appeared on Politico.com, a political news Web site.
“President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation’s editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation’s health care system,” Mr. Lamb wrote.
“Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between the Chambers,” he added, “we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American.”
The House and Senate are preparing to abandon the traditional approach of melding their health care bills in a conference committee, which would allow for some floor debate — and television coverage.
But that approach would also give Republicans a chance to filibuster and stall the process. So Democratic leaders have decided to hash out their differences on their own, which probably means most of the negotiations will take place behind closed doors with White House officials.
Mr. Lamb said in an interview that C-Span had been able to cover final negotiations on most bills, with the exception of appropriations. He said he wrote the letter because C-Span had already covered hundreds of hours of the health care process, and he wanted to make sure that leaders knew C-Span was interested in following it to the end.
Much of the negotiating that led to passage of both the House and Senate health care bills, however, was done in private.
As yet, Democratic leaders have not responded to C-Span’s request. But it has given Republicans an easy target, especially since President Obama specified so many times in the presidential campaign that under his administration health care negotiations would be conducted with C-Span watching.
Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, said in a statement, “C-SPAN’s role in fostering government transparency is so significant that on several occasions during the last presidential campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) pledged that health care reform negotiations would be broadcast on C-SPAN so ‘the American people will know what’s going on.’”
He added: “These secret deliberations are a breeding ground for more of the kickbacks, shady deals and special-interest provisions that have become business as usual in Washington. Too much is at stake to have a final bill built on payoffs and pork-barrel spending.”
Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana and chairman of the House Republican Conference, issued a statement saying the C-Span request gave Mr. Obama “one last chance” to keep his promise.
At a visit to Google in 2007, Mr. Obama noted that the Clintons had made a mistake in the early 1990s by designing their health care plan “in isolation from the American people.”
“We will work on this process publicly,” he added. “It will be on C-Span. It will be streaming over the Net.”
At another point during the campaign, Mr. Obama argued that if a member of Congress was “carrying water for the drug companies,” for example, television coverage would expose it. “You can shame Congress into doing the right thing if people know what’s going on,” he said.
As it happens, the White House itself has bargained with the drug companies behind closed doors. And it’s worth noting that when Republicans were in charge, they were secretive at numerous junctures, including the negotiations on the Medicare prescription drug plan, when they locked most Democrats out of their deliberations.
In July, while Congressional leaders were negotiating their health bills in private, Mr. Obama was asked at a news conference about the lack of transparency on the issue, in light of his earlier promises.
He said that the “kickoff event” for the health care bill had been held in the White House in front of cameras, but added: “At a certain point, you start getting into all kinds of different meetings.” He said that if members of Congress “want those on C-Span, I would welcome it.”
“I don’t think there are a lot of secrets going on in there,” he added.
At a news briefing today, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said he had not seen Mr. Lamb’s letter and could not comment.
Mr. Lamb underscored that he had addressed his letter to Congressional leaders, not the White House, since the coverage involves Congress.
Here is his letter to Congressional leaders:
As your respective chambers work to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate health care bills, C-SPAN requests that you open all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings, to electronic media coverage.
The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of these sessions LIVE and in their entirety. We will also, as we willingly do each day, provide C-SPAN’s multicamera coverage to any interested member of the Capitol Hill broadcast pool.
Since the initial introduction of the America’s Affordable Health Care Act of 2009 in the House and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in the Senate
C-SPAN has televised literally hundreds of hours of committee hearings, markups and floor debate on these bills for the public to see. And importantly, we have archived all of this video for future generations to study in the C-SPAN Video Archives.
President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation’s editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation’s health care system. Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between the Chambers, we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American.
We hope you will give serious consideration to this request. We are most willing to employ the latest digital technology to make the cameras, lights and microphones as unobtrusive as possible.
Please contact me if I can answer any questions.
Sincerely,
Brian Lamb
