Senate moves to allow videos on YouTube website

The Senate is following the House in moving to dedicate a separate YouTube channel for official videos posted on Senate websites.

Senators are posting videos on YouTube and other websites, even though the chamber’s rules do not allow lawmakers to post official video on websites outside of the Senate.gov domain. The rules, which are the same in the House, are outdated, according to lawmakers.

Senate Rules and Administration Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has been spearheading the Senate effort, and her office said the committee is weeks away from getting the unanimous support it needs to pass the rule, which would allow the Senate to host its videos on a YouTube site free from commercial and political advertisements.

“The current regulations don’t allow for it,” said Howard Gantman, staff director for the Senate Rules and Administration committee’s Democrat office.

Efforts in the House erupted in controversy last week after House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) charged Democrats with stifling free speech through their  rule-making process. In the Senate, however, bipartisan discussions on the committee have been going on for six months, and Feinstein’s office described the talks as amicable.

Gantman said, “We’re trying to do this in a way that works for everybody.”

Ranking Republican Sen. Bob Bennett’s (Utah) office did not return a call seeking comment.

The existing rules were established to separate taxpayer-funded websites and commercial websites. If they weren’t kept apart, lawmakers feared it would give the impression that tax dollars were being used to support for-profit websites.

Both Senate and House lawmakers have been in discussions with YouTube, which they say has been supportive of their desire to establish a separate channel for lawmakers’ content. YouTube, which is owned by Google, declined to comment on the discussions.

Last week, Boehner said a similar proposal from Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) would limit the resources lawmakers could use to communicate with their constituents.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) responded in a letter that Boehner had misunderstood the intentions of Capuano’s proposal and that she was committed to ensuring open communication between constituents and their representatives.

“I can assure you that it is not the intention, nor will it be the result, of the final regulations to stifle, censor, or deprive members of communicating effectively and in real time with their constituents,” Pelosi wrote.

But the office of Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Mich.), ranking member on the House Administration Committee, said it was concerned that by creating separate channels for official House use on YouTube, the House would be endorsing a specific company.

“We don’t want to be in the business of endorsing websites,” said Salley Collins, spokeswoman for the House Administration committee’s GOP office.

Capuano also responded with a statement defending his actions.

“The only item we seek to address is loosening existing rules to allow members to post videos as a first step toward making the rules meet our constituents’ expectations regarding how they communicate with us,” Capuano wrote.