Senate and Assembly proceedings can be followed on the Internet

By Phil Brinkman, State government reporter

The gallery in the state Assembly can comfortably accommodate 196 spectators. The Senate gallery seats 99.

But if you have access to the Internet, you can get a virtual front-row seat to legislative sessions from Sheboygan to Sri Lanka.

In many ways, attending sessions online can be even more instructive than viewing them in person, thanks to a number of useful and easy-to-navigate Web sites and links.

Through streaming audio and video, viewers can hear and watch speakers as they rise to discuss legislation while viewing the full text of the bill alongside the image.

Want to see who lobbied for or against the measure? A click of the mouse opens a window to the state Ethics Board's Web site, detailing the lobbying effort by every organization involved with the bill.

Other links show the bill's history, committee votes and reports of the bill's fiscal impact. Proposed amendments, some still bearing handwritten notes, are scanned in moments after being drafted, allowing the public to read them at the same time they're made available to state representatives on their laptop computers (senators still use only paper on the floor of their house).

During lulls in the debate, lawmakers sometimes check their e-mails, giving constituents a chance to weigh in on the bill as it's being discussed, possibly even influencing the debate.

And that's not all.

Just about every report any legislative agency generates – every audit, every analysis – can now be viewed online. There are links to every piece of legislation, proposed or adopted, that lawmakers have taken up each session. You can follow other links to see the full text of the state constitution and state statutes.

If you have a gripe about what your legislator is doing, or just want to tell that person he or she is doing a good job, look for the online e-mail and phone directories.

When legislators were forced to redraw political boundaries in 2002 in response to population changes in the last census, Internet users not only could view the proposed maps; using software provided, they could also try their hand at drawing their own maps.

Internet access has also dramatically cut down on paper use at the Capitol, increasing efficiency and saving money. By receiving bills and amendments on their laptops, members of the state Assembly printed 4.7 million fewer pages of paper in the last session, for a savings of more than $142,000, according to the Legislative Technology Services Bureau.

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