Carl Malamud has not only started archiving and indexing Congressional committee hearings, he’s spent two years studying the problem of using the Internet to make Congress accessible, and has concluded:

By the end of the 110th Congress, the U.S. House of Representatives could achieve the goal of providing broadcast-quality video of all hearings and the floor for download on the Internet.

— Report to Congress, Carl Malamud to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, 13 March 2007

Sounds doable to me. See his report for copious details.

-jsq