Former Congressman Brian Baird and Daniel Schuman on How Congress Can Continue to Function Remotely
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2020
⏱️ 44 minutes
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Summary
On April 16, former members of Congress participated in a "Mock Remote Hearing" via Zoom to test the viability of online congressional proceedings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Former General David Petraeus testified, along with representatives from Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other experts; a Member of the UK Parliament testified about how the UK Parliament is innovating to meet the demands of social distancing.
Margaret Taylor talked with former Congressman Brian Baird—who chaired the mock hearing—and Daniel Schuman, a lawyer, technologist and government transparency advocate who testified. They talked about Congress’s rather timid efforts so far to innovate in the age of social distancing, and ways Congress could continue to do hearings, markups and floor votes in a live, digital, remote format. They talked about the constitutional underpinnings of remote work by Congress and the importance of robust legislative and oversight work in a representative democracy—especially in the midst of a national crisis.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:33.9 | When we do not prepare to maintain the institutions of the Congress or the courts or the executive |
| 0:39.6 | branch in a constitutionally valid way, we are violating our sacred oath. |
| 0:44.7 | Right now, capable, competent, dedicated public servants, the people who were elected to serve |
| 0:54.7 | and represent their constituents are being prevented by leadership from fulfilling their |
| 0:59.2 | constitutional duties. |
| 1:01.8 | I'm Margaret Taylor and this is the LawFair podcast, April 20, 2020. |
| 1:07.4 | On April 16, former members of Congress participated in a mock remote hearing via Zoom to test |
| 1:14.1 | the viability of online congressional proceedings during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 1:19.6 | Former General David Petraeus testified along with representatives from Zoom, Microsoft |
| 1:24.0 | teams and other experts. |
| 1:26.5 | A member of the UK Parliament testified about how the UK Parliament is innovating to meet |
| 1:31.5 | the demands of social distancing. |
| 1:34.4 | In this episode of the LawFair podcast, I talked with former Congressman Brian Baird |
| 1:39.2 | who chaired the mock hearing and David Schumann, a lawyer, technologist and government transparency |
| 1:45.1 | advocate who testified. |
| 1:47.4 | We talked about Congress's rather timid efforts so far to innovate in the age of social distancing |
| 1:53.5 | and ways Congress could continue to do hearings, markups and floor votes in a live digital |
... |
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