In The Loop – March 11, 2022
A small glimmer of hope was dashed this week at the LOB
So the café is open, and committee staff issued new rules for hybrid attendance by legislators for committee and public hearings. Legislators began to attend in person committee meetings this week, and everyone was excited to see the room locations published for a bunch of committee meetings. But, ….now we’re hearing that the in-person committee activities are still not fully open to the public (aka lobbyists) – rats!
For two session we’ve been operating at a distance and it’s certainly made lobbying a challenge. The other day, I was talking to some legislators first elected in 2018 about the fact that out of the almost 48 months of their service as a state legislator, they have only been in the LOB/Capitol with face-to-face public interactions for the first year of their term, 2 months in 2020 and only one day of 2022.. They too are frustrated. That’s only 1/3 of the time they have been serving as a state representative!