Executive Committee reviews remote testimony policy; staff to allow in-person witnesses to switch to remote in some cases

Deputy Director Elizabeth Berger, Legislative Council staff, presented an updated Executive Committee policy on remote testimony that is unchanged from the previous policy except for updated dates and clarifying language.

Berger told the committee that, under the current policy, “remote witnesses [must] be registered at the time the hearing begins,” while in-person witnesses and those submitting written testimony may register throughout the hearing. The policy is issued under state law that authorizes the Executive Committee to set remote-testimony procedures for committees and is intended to create consistent rules across the House and Senate.

Committee members pressed staff on two points: whether the registration cutoff is tied to the scheduled start time or the actual start of a bill hearing, and whether an attendee who originally signs up to testify in person can later switch to remote testimony if they need to leave. Berger clarified that the cutoff is the “actual start…when the staff triggers the bill hearing,” not the scheduled meeting start, and said the current draft would not allow an in-person registrant to switch to remote after registration has closed.

Several members, including Majority Leader Rodriguez and Minority Leader Lundin, argued the chair should have discretion to broaden access. Rodriguez asked whether the cutoff is “the time or…the start of the hearing,” and Lundin and other members urged that chairs be able to expand access. Berger and other staff said they could accommodate switching in individual cases without programming changes: “we could accommodate those folks in that…circumstance” by providing the remote link manually if the committee desires.

Director Natalie Castle and Deputy Director Manish Jani noted a trade-off between staff/technical burden and public access. Castle said it would be easier from a systems standpoint “to program the system to either have it allow it until the end of the hearing or not allow it after the beginning of the hearing,” while Manish Jani said staff could manually supply links to allow in-person registrants to switch to remote if the committee wants that discretion.

The committee did not take a formal vote on changing the registration cutoff during the meeting. Staff offered to revise the draft policy to (a) confirm the registration cutoff is the start of each bill hearing, and (b) include optional language allowing chairs to permit in-person registrants to switch to remote, or to have staff manually provide the link in specified circumstances.