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Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 00:34:26 -0400
From: Michael Ward
Distributed to TAP-INFO, a free Internet Distribution List (subscription requests to listserver@essential.org)
TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE (please distribute freely)
Crown Jewels Campaign - LEGIS June 2, 1994
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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