WASHINGTON, March 2 (UPI) -- Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives have asked a cable TV outlet to show meetings of the House Rules Committee.
The four Democratic Party members of the committee, which affects House floor debate, including ranking member Rep. Louis Slaughter, D-N.Y., requested the coverage this week in a letter to C-SPAN, the network that cablecasts congressional hearings, The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper reported. The network said it would take the request under consideration.
However, even the letter writers suggest this might be a problem, since the committee, Democrats claim, often meets in short notice late in the evening.
The letter states, "There is no major piece of legislation that goes to the House floor without the committee's input and sometimes extensive manipulation. Given the American people a chance to see this little known and little understood part of their democracy at work is crucial to C-SPAN's mission."
The committee has nine Republicans including Chairmen Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., and four Democrats and rarely, the Hill said, votes out of party line.
