Capitol Debate Available On Internet State Office, Idaho Public Television Serve Up Floor, Budget Panel Action

Even from as far away as North Idaho, people can now listen to the live action in the Idaho Legislature.

Idaho Public Television and the state’s legislative services office pooled their resources to create a link on the Internet where people can hear live audio from debates on the House and Senate floors and budget deliberations in the powerful Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.

“Idaho Public Television has a 25-year history of providing coverage of the Legislature,” said General Manager Peter Morrill. “This seemed like a natural step for us, to give citizens all over the state an opportunity to have better access to what is going on in the Statehouse.”

“This is really part of a multilayer effort to show people how Idaho’s Legislature works and make the legislative process accessible,” said Sheila Ison, communications manager for legislative services. “I think it’s really a neat service.”

On Wednesday, 736 citizens plugged into the network to listen to Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s budget address.

“For the general public to be able to connect into the system from wherever they are makes it a lot easier for them to be involved,” Morrill said.

Though some broadcasts of floor debates started last year, this is the first year that the key budget committee is being aired live.

A free, downloadable program called RealPlayer allows the audio to play; links on the site guide users who don’t already have the program.

“The Idaho Report Web site has several other things that people will want to look at,” Morrill said.

Among them is a section set up especially for high school government classes, designed to allow students to get involved in the legislative process.

House and Senate debate times vary, but lawmakers generally convene mid- to late-morning early in the session. Later, they’ll be in session much of the day. Links on the Internet site to calendars give the schedule.

The budget committee meets Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. Mountain time, or 7 a.m. Pacific time.

The audio feeds are live, so if you tune in at 7 p.m. all will be quiet. But you can see a recap of what went on in the Legislature each week by watching episodes of the Idaho Reports program, IPTV’s weekly legislative affairs program, stored on the site.

This sidebar appeared with the story: ON THE WEB Legislature links The site can be reached through IPTV’s homepage, www.idahoptv.org. Just click on the link to Idaho Reports. On this page you will find a link to the audio feeds.