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House Committee Rules Governing the Broadcast of Hearings, 93d Congress

For the 93rd Congress the published rules of eighteen House committees contain provisions relating to the broadcasting of their hearings: Agriculture, Appropriations, Banking and Currency, District of Columbia, Education and Labor, Foreign Affairs, Government Operations, Interior and Insular Affairs, Internal Security, Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Judiciary, Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Post Office and Civil Service, Public Works, Rules, Veterans' Affairs, Select Committee on Committees and Select Small Business.

The Committees on Armed Services, House Administration, Science and Astronautics, Standards of Official Conduct, and Ways and Means have no such provisions in their written rules. Excluded from this count are the other housekeeping committees (Committee on the House Restaurant, House Recording Studio, Select Committee on the House Beauty Shop, and Select Committee to Regulate Parking).

The following are the rules of House committees for the 93rd Congress regarding broadcast of hearings:

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HOUSE COMMITTEE RULES FOR THE 93RD CONGRESS
REGARDING BROADCAST OF HEARINGS

Agriculture

Rule 15

1-26-73

RULE

Broadcasting and still photography of any
Committee or Subcommittee hearing or meeting shall
be permitted only when the full Committee by a
majority vote agrees to such broadcasting or still
photography. All news media shall be permitted to
attend public hearings. In the event that the full
Committee votes to permit broadcasting and still
photography of a hearing or meeting, the following
conditions shall apply:

(1) If the television or radio coverage
of the hearing is to be presented to the public
as live coverage, that coverage shall be con-
ducted and presented without commercial sponsor-
ship.

(2) No witness served with a subpoena by
the Committee shall be required against his
will to be photographed at any hearing or to
give evidence or testimony while the broadcasting
of that hearing, by radio or television, is
being conducted. At the request of any such
witness who does not wish to be subjected to
radio, television, or still photography coverage,
all lenses shall be covered and all microphones
used for coverage turned off. This subparagraph
is supplementary to paragraph (m) of clause 27
of Rule XI, relating to the protection of the
rights of witnesses.

(3) Not more than four television cameras, operating from fixed positions, shall be permitted in a hearing room. The allocation among the

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HOUSE COMMITTEE RULES FOR THE 93RD CONGRESS
REGARDING BROADCAST OF HEARINGS

2.

RULE

television media of the positions of the number
of television cameras permitted in a hearing room
shall be in accordance with fair and equitable
procedures devised by the Executive Committee of
the Radio and Television Correspondents' Galleries.
(4) Television cameras shall be placed so as
not to obstruct in any way the space between any
witness giving evidence or testimony and any member
of the Committee or the visibility of that witness
and that member to each other.

(5) Television cameras shall not be placed in
positions which obstruct unnecessarily the coverage
of the hearing by the other media.

(6) Equipment necessary for coverage by the
television and radio media shall not be installed
in, or removed from, the hearing room while the
Committee is in session.

(7) Floodlights, spotlights, strobelights, and
flashguns shall not be used in providing any method
of coverage of the hearing, except that the tele-
vision media may install additional lighting in the
hearing room, without cost to the Government, in
order to raise the ambient lighting level in the
hearing room to the lowest level necessary to provide
adequate television coverage of the hearing at the
then current state of the art of television coverage.
(8) Not more than five press photographers
shall be permitted to cover a hearing by still
photography. In the selection of these photographers,
preference shall be given to photographers from the

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HOUSE COMMITTEE RULES FOR THE 93RD CONGRESS
REGARDING BROADCAST OF HEARINGS

RULE

3.

Associated Press Photos and United Press International
Newspictures. If request is made by more than five
of the media for coverage of the hearing by still
photography, that coverage shall be made on the basis
of a fair and equitable pool arrangement devised by
the Standing Committee of Press Photographers.

(9) Photographers shall not position themselves,
at any time during the course of the hearing, between
the witness table and the members of the Committee.
(10) Photographers shall not place themselves
in positions which obstruct unnecessarily the coverage
of the hearings by the other media.

(11) Personnel providing coverage by the tele-
vision and radio media shall be then currently
accredited to the Radio and Television Correspondents
Galleries.

(12) Personnel providing coverage by still
photography shall be then currently accredited to
the Press Photographers Gallery.

(13) Personnel providing coverage by the tele-
vision and radio media and by still photography
shall conduct themselves and their coverage activities
in an orderly and unobtrusive manner.

(c) Broadcasting and Photographing of Committee Hearings:

(1) The Chairman shall determine the extent and nature of broadcasting and photographic coverage for

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HOUSE COMMITTEE RULES FOR THE 93RD CONGRESS
REGARDING BROADCAST OF HEARINGS

RULE

No rule.