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ANNAPOLIS — The House of Delegates soon will start streaming committee meetings and placing committee votes online, a State House spokeswoman said Thursday.

The move comes as both chambers weigh bills and potential rule changes designed to expand public access to the legislative process.

The Taylor Office Building, which opened in 2007, was built with the technology to allow online committee hearings. It has taken several sessions to work out the glitches, said Alexandra M. Hughes, spokeswoman for House Speaker Michael E. Busch.

The House also will be posting committee votes online, Hughes said, declining to be specific on the timing.

Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach have met several times since the end of the last session to develop a plan for moving forward with greater Internet access to the legislature's proceedings, she said.

Hughes revealed the House plans on the same day that House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell proposed changes to the rules guiding the chamber that are designed to increase citizen access to General Assembly information.

"More people are skeptical about their government," said O'Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby. "That's not healthy."

O'Donnell's proposals call for video streaming of committee hearings, publishing committee votes on the Internet and requiring committee meetings to be open to the public.

The Open Meetings Law already allows the public to attend most General Assembly meetings. O'Donnell said that if the House's rulebook included the provision, it would make it easier to police.

Floor votes on bills and amendments have been available online for years.

The Senate committee votes have been online when the chamber publishes its journal at the end of each session. The House has not put its committee votes online. Both chambers make their committee votes available through the committee offices.

Similar proposals are in the Senate. Both chambers have sent their ideas to their respective rules committees.

Government transparency has been a regular theme among lawmakers since before the start of the 2010 session. Dels. Heather R. Mizeur (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park and Saqib Ali (D-Dist. 39) of Gaithersburg are proposing legislation to expand access to government information.

"I'm particularly interested and concerned with having greater access and advanced notice to the deliberations that the Board of Public Works is considering at their meetings," Mizeur said. "When cutting as much as a billion dollars out of the budget, finding out about what will be on the chopping block 24 hours in advance does not count as transparency."

Ali has a similar proposal, which prompted some online bickering on blogs and Facebook.

The focus on the Internet drew some criticism from their Montgomery County colleague, Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons, who sees greater issues than just what citizens can find online. To him, an open government would allow a vote on every bill, and not give committee chairmen the prerogative to decide what gets an up-or-down vote.

"I would hate to see real reform sidetracked for what I say is simply cosmetic, high-sounding calls for transparency. The real transparency is, let's allow a bill to be voted on," said Simmons (D-Dist. 17) of Rockville.

To Senate Minority Leader Allan H. Kittleman, the issue is more than what's available online as well; it's what's available to Republicans. Each year as the parties spar over the budget, Democrats challenge Republicans to come up with a better proposal.

"It's difficult for us to develop plans or whatever without the resources that the majority party has," said Kittleman (R-Dist. 9) of West Friendship.

Because Democrats hold the majority, they hold committee chairmanships and control over the committee staff, he said.

"The public meetings and the public hearings are just for show. That's what we have to get by before we start talking about plans and ideas because that's what they love to tell you," he said.