§21-12  Testimony.  (a)  Aninvestigating committee shall cause a record to be made of all proceedings inwhich testimony or other evidence is demanded or adduced, which record shallinclude rulings of the chair, questions of the committee and its staff, thetestimony or responses of witnesses, sworn written statements submitted to thecommittee, and such other matters as the committee or its chairperson maydirect.

(b)  All testimony given or adduced at ahearing shall be under oath or affirmation unless the requirement is dispensedwith in a particular instance by majority vote of the committee members presentat the hearing.

(c)  The president or speaker or otherpresiding officer of either house of the legislature or any member of aninvestigating committee may administer an oath or affirmation to a witness at ahearing of such committee.

(d)  The presiding officer at a hearing maydirect a witness to answer any relevant question or furnish any relevant book,paper, or other document, the production of which has been required by subpoenaduces tecum.  Unless the direction is overruled by majority vote of thecommittee members present, disobedience shall constitute a contempt.

(e)  A witness at a hearing or the witness'counsel, with the consent of a majority of the committee members present at thehearing, may file with the committee for incorporation into the record of thehearing sworn written statements relevant to the purpose, subject matter, andscope of the committee's investigation or inquiry.

(f)  A witness at a hearing, upon the witness'advance request and at the witness' own expense, shall be furnished a certifiedtranscript of the witness' testimony at the hearing.

(g)  Testimony and other evidence given oradduced at a hearing closed to the public shall not be made public unlessauthorized by majority vote of all of the members of the committee, whichauthorization shall also specify the form and manner in which the testimony orother evidence may be released.

(h)  All information of a defamatory or highlyprejudicial nature received by or for the committee other than in an open orclosed hearing shall be deemed to be confidential.  No such information shallbe made public unless authorized by majority vote of all of the members of thecommittee for legislative purposes, or unless its use is required for judicialpurposes. [L 1969, c 211, pt of §1; gen ch 1985, 1993]