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Historical Almanac of the U.S. Senate
Contents:
Senate Opens All Committee Meetings
On November 5, 1975, the U.S. Senate voted 86 to 0 to open its committee meetings to the public and the press. This action was a part of the general "sunshine" movement that followed in the wake of Watergate and concern over excessive secrecy in government.
The Senate began by rejecting—by a margin of 16 to 77—a Rules Committee proposal that would have allowed each committee to set its own rules for opening hearings It then adopted a more sweeping proposal, offered by Senator Robert Byrd, to open all committee meetings, including markup sessions, unless they dealt with issues of national security or personal privacy.
As Senator Mark Hatfield said during the debate over the measure : "For too long the major decisions affecting the lives of millions of Americans have been made behind closed doors. The pictorial image of smoke-filled rooms, unfortunately, has not only been applied to political conventions, but to the Congress as well." Senator William Roth added, "I believe that when we rid the government of unnecessary secrecy, there will be greater respect for the times when confidentiality is necessary."
Senator Edmund Muskie pointed out that the Budget Committee had already begun holding its markup sessions in public and, while he had at first had some misgivings, he found that it was quite possible to reach accommodations and debate difficult issues in open sessions. "Open meetings have encouraged responsible decision making," he reported. "They have improved our access to public opinion, and they have broadened both the debate and public involvement where our tax dollars will be spent."
Today, the Senate continues to work quite well under the open-door rule that we adopted in 1975.
Contents:
Chicago: Robert J. Dole, "Senate Opens All Committee Meetings," Historical Almanac of the U.S. Senate: A Series of Bicentennial Minutes Presented to the Senate During the One Hundredth Congress (Washington, D.C.: U.S Government Printing Office, 1989), in Original Sources, accessed December 11, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8DXJNMYF2WV7I76.
MLA: Dole, Robert J. "Senate Opens All Committee Meetings." Historical Almanac of the U.S. Senate: A Series of Bicentennial Minutes Presented to the Senate During the One Hundredth Congress, Washington, D.C., U.S Government Printing Office, 1989, in , Original Sources. 11 Dec. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8DXJNMYF2WV7I76.
Harvard: Dole, RJ 1989, 'Senate Opens All Committee Meetings' in Historical Almanac of the U.S. Senate: A Series of Bicentennial Minutes Presented to the Senate During the One Hundredth Congress, U.S Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.. cited in , . Original Sources, retrieved 11 December 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8DXJNMYF2WV7I76.
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