Nader asks Congress to put database of congressional votes on the Internet

[Gary Ruskin]

Congressional Reform Briefings			December 1, 2000

Ralph Nader and the Congressional Accountability Project sent letters
today to U.S. Senate and House leaders asking them to place a searchable
database of congressional votes on the Internet, so that citizens could
easily read and study the voting records of their Members of Congress.

The letters were sent to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Majority Leader
Dick Armey, Majority Whip Tom DeLay, Republican Conference Chairman J.C.
Watts Jr, Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, Minority Whip David Bonior,
Democratic Caucus Chairman Martin Frost, Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott, Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles, Republican Conference
Chairman Connie Mack, Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Assistant Minority
Leader Harry Reid and Democratic Conference Chair Barbara Mikulski.

Following is the text of the letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Dear Speaker Hastert:

Isn't it time for Congress to harness the power of the Internet to serve
democracy?

The Internet is a wonder at distributing information cheaply and
efficiently.  The marginal cost of disseminating a document on the
Internet is essentially zero. 

Congress ought to use the Internet to enable citizens to inform
themselves about the inner workings of the federal government.  But
Congress is still stuck on the basics.  

Access to the voting records of elected officials is a cornerstone of
democracy.  Yet Congress still has not put on the Internet a database of
congressional votes, searchable by bill name, subject, title, Member
name, etc. Why not?  Why the foot-dragging in this area?
	
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have put their roll
call votes on the Internet -- but not in a searchable format.  So it can
take hours of painstaking, frustrating, tedious labor for constituents
to compile their Members' voting records on any given subject.  Why
should constituents expend so much time and energy doing something that
a computerized database could do in microseconds? This makes no sense at
all.

Congress ought to make it easy for citizens to carry out their civic
duties.  An online database of congressional votes would provide a major
advance in the ability of citizens to track the actions of their Members
of Congress.  If you're proud of what you and your colleagues do in
Washington, then why not make it as easy as possible for citizens to
read and study these voting records on the Internet?

Will you make this simple congressional reform a top priority for the
107th Congress?
	
Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

Gary Ruskin							
Director	
<---------letter ends here--------->
FOR MORE INFORMATION
about the failure of Congress to put its most important documents and
materials on the Internet, see the Congressional Accountability
Project's web page at <http://www.essential.org/orgs/CAP/CAP.html> 

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
Please ask your Members of Congress to put the most important
congressional documents and materials on the Internet, including a
searchable database of congressional voting records (and committee
votes), indexed by bill name, subject, title, member name, etc.

The congressional switchboard phone is (202) 225-3121. To find the fax
numbers and e-mail addresses of Members of Congress, see
<http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html>.


The Congressional Accountability Project opposes corruption in the U.S.
Congress. 

Congressional Reform Briefings are distributed electronically via the
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to the cong-reform mailing list, go to
<http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/cong-reform> or send the
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PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
-- 
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Gary Ruskin | Congressional Accountability Project
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/orgs/CAP/CAP.html |
mailto:gary@essential.org |
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