After touting their fight for transparency in a series of at least 13 Tweets over the last 10 days, House Republicans on the Rules Committee today killed Delegate Mark Levine’s bill to require that subcommittee meetings be streamed and archived for their constituents.
In response, Delegate Levine issued the following statement:
“When I first came to Richmond two years ago and co-founded the Virginia Transparency Caucus (the VTC), the House Republican Leadership didn’t stream or archive committee meetings. They didn’t even record subcommittee votes.
“When efforts to request more transparency failed, my co-founder and I circulated a letter in the House of Delegates and the Senate to the clerks of our respective bodies demanding transparency. An astonishing 85 members, or more than 60% of the General Assembly (and a majority in both chambers) agreed with Senator Amanda Chase and me that our constituents had a right to know what we were doing in Richmond.
“We are grateful the House Republican Leadership this year agreed to satisfy the vast majority of Members and the People of Virginia by finally streaming and archiving committees. And we are grateful the House Democratic Leadership, in organizational negotiations this year, successfully demanded from Republicans the recording of subcommittee votes.
Sometimes movement only happens when members of an organization drag its leadership to do the right thing. I’m confident this will happen in the future as it has in the past. One day soon House Leadership will record subcommittees, either because Republicans accede to the the will of the members of the General Assembly, or because Democrats take over and make it happen.”
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