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Bills Online, Action Needed Now
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TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
(please distribute freely)
Crown Jewels Campaign - LEGIS
June 2, 1994
- SPECIAL TASK FORCE OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO TAKE
ACTION ON INTERNET ISSUES
- ACTION NEEDED (NOW) TO GET COPIES OF CONGRESSIONAL BILLS
ONLINE THROUGH THE INTERNET
- QUICK ACTION CAN MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE
by: Mike Ward (mike@essential.org), TAP
Jamie Love (love@essential.org), TAP
A special 60 day "Task Force on the Internet," has been created
within the House of Representatives Committee on House
Administration. This Task Force will be issuing a report
(possibly the week of June 6-10) on the use of the Internet by
the House of Representatives. Among the issues that the Task
Force should address is the dissemination of bills being
considered by the House. It is critically important to alert Task
Force members to your interest in accessing bills before Congress
through the Internet. TAP recommends that you email and fax the
following House members, telling them that the House of
Representatives should make available all bills pending before
Congress through ftp, email ftp and gopher.
Members of the TASK FORCE ON THE INTERNET are:
Thomas Manton (D-NY)
ph. 202-225-3965 fax 202-225-1909 NO EMAIL
Sam Gejdenson (D-CT)
ph. 202-225-3965 fax 202-225-2076 bozrah@hr.house.gov
Dale Kildee (D-MI)
ph. 202-25-3611 fax 202-225-6393 NO EMAIL
Bill Thomas (R-CA), Ranking Minority Member Comm. on House Admin.
ph. 202-225-2915 fax 202-225-8798 NO EMAIL
Jennifer Dunn (R-WA)
ph. 202-225-7761 fax 202-225-8673 NO EMAIL
Also important is:
Pat Roberts (R-KS), Ranking minority member of the Joint
Committee on Printing
ph. 202-225-2715 fax 202-225-5375
-----------------------------------
Our letter reads as follows:
Representative Sam Gejdenson, et. al
Task Force on the Internet
U.S. House of Representatives
Dear Representative:
We are writing to urge you to make all pending bills available on
the Internet. We have been asking for online access to
congressional bills for three years. It is our understanding
that the principal opposition to this has come from a handful of
commercial data vendors. We think that the time has come for
Congress to think in terms of how it can make democracy work
better for the public, rather than find ways to enrich a few
commercial interests. If Congress can find millions of dollars
for Congressional franking privileges, sending out thinly
disguised campaign literature, it can find a few thousand dollars
to put copies of pending legislation online so that ordinary
citizens can better monitor the activities of Congress.
Thank you.
Sincerely
James Love
Mike Ward
Taxpayer Assets Project
------------------------------------
GPO Access Program Announcement on "enrolled bills"
Several readers wrote us in regards to a post circulated on the
Internet announcing the Government Printing Office's plan to make
bills accessible through the Internet on June 8th. The
announcement about the GPO Access Program only pertained to bills
already passed by both the House and Senate, "enrolled bills",
that are awaiting the President's signature. These bills are of
little use for citizen participation in the democratic process
since they have already been passed by congress.
mike
--------------------------
letter from Representative Charlie Rose
Attached is a letter from Rep. Charlie Rose (crose@hr.house.gov),
Chairman of the Committee on House Administration, responding to
those who wrote him in regards to the May 9th TAP-INFO, "Zimmer
Urges House Legislation Be Accessible on the Internet."
Dear Interested Network Citizen:
Thank you for your recent interest and thoughtful comments regarding
the availability of proposed legislation on the Internet. As you may
know, the Committee on House Administration, which I Chair, and House
Information Systems have been working hard to make Member and Committee
offices accessible to the Internet. Currently, twenty-five Members and
several committees have established Internet mail boxes. In March I
announced the availability to all Member offices public electronic mail
services using the Internet. We are also providing access for Member
offices directly to the Internet for staff research. As part of these
efforts, House Information Systems has also established a server on the
Internet which uses the University of Minnesota GOPHER software to
provide a wide variety of information about the House of
Representatives, its Members, and committees. This server is accessible
on the Internet, and is named GOPHER.HOUSE.GOV. Information regarding
the public electronic mail system, which provides a mail box for
constituents to send electronic mail messages to their Member of
Congress, can be obtained by sending an electronic mail message to:
CONGRESS@HR.HOUSE.GOV.
The Committee on House Administration is currently considering various
policy alternatives regarding the release of the electronic version of
congressional documents printed by the Government Printing Office. In
fact I have created a task force, which conducted a hearing this past
Wednesday, May 5, to explore those alternatives. After receiving input
from the task force, the Committee will direct House Information Systems
to add the electronic data base version of printed documents that can be
economically and accurately made available. I would also encourage you
to write Bill Thomas of California, the Ranking Minority Member of the
Committee on House Administration and Pat Roberts of Kansas, the Ranking
Minority Member of the Joint Committee on Printing. It is important
that they know your views of this important subject.
Once again, thank you for your interest and please watch for additional
announcements regarding the availability of on-line congressional
information.
With my very best wishes,
Sincerely,
Charlie Rose
Chairman
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