Congress Now Posts Its Politicking on Internet

Uncle Sam has never looked worse than on the World Wide Web home page of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands): Bloated almost beyond recognition, vest buttons popping, palm outstretched, the national icon informs visitors to Lewis’ computer domain that “Uncle Sam needs a diet!”

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) posts on his home page a letter that he wrote to advice columnist Ann Landers along with photos of him and his wife taken on the family farm. At the click of a mouse, the sweatshirt-clad couple suddenly appears in ski wear, surrounded by snow.

Congress has arrived on the Internet and, like the legislative process itself, the results are somewhat haphazard, occasionally hokey and highly political.

At last count, 180 members of the House and 32 members of the Senate had established official home pages on the World Wide Web. The number grows almost daily as Congress moves rapidly, albeit with some trepidation, to appropriate its rightful place on the information superhighway.

But as the number of home pages proliferates, so too do the complaints. Critics say that the House and Senate have failed to fulfill initial promises to make the inner workings of Congress more accessible to citizens via computer-based communication.

Official biographies and press releases abound but fewer than half of incumbent House members have published their e-mail addresses so that they can receive messages from constituents. There seem to be more recipes for favorite foods than there are for fixing the federal government. And watchdog groups fault Congress for failing to post timely reports on pending bills, committee action, member voting records and other essential aspects of the legislative process.

“I think it’s obvious that there are members of Congress who do not want to be more easily held accountable for their actions,” said Gary Ruskin, who heads the Congressional Accountability Project.

Marjorie Power, a Montpelier, Vt., city councilwoman who belongs to a women’s league that is using the Internet to advance its political agenda, said: “If a congressman or senator doesn’t have e-mail, you kind of wonder, ‘Are we in the same century?’ ”

Members of Congress attribute the lack of progress in some areas to concerns about computer security, obsolete or incompatible equipment and cultural opposition from an institution so steeped in tradition that spittoons are still posted on the Senate floor.

Some Internet enthusiasts say that those explanations sound like excuses. They suggest that many lawmakers are wary of placing information in the hands of “netizens” at the same time it reaches congressional lobbyists and other Capitol Hill insiders. Doing so, they say, might make it more difficult to engage in the kind of backroom deal-making preferred by some members. Virtual reality, in their view, has been upstaged by political reality.

Consider the irony: Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), who was born a year after Guglielmo Marconi first transmitted the Morse Code over the Atlantic Ocean, is plugged in with his own home page, albeit one prepared by a younger staff. But House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), the self-proclaimed “cyber speaker,” is not. (Gingrich has an e-mail address but response is slow, at best.)

It was Gingrich who led the charge to the Internet’s edge when he promised after the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress that “every American everywhere in the country” would have the same access as lobbyists and insiders to free information about the inner workings of Congress.

Computer-savvy voters seeking more accountability from the House and Senate say that Gingrich’s pledge has gone largely unfulfilled.

While computer users can read the original text of bills on government Web sites, the working drafts prepared by committee chairmen and circulated among lobbyists are not accessible, nor are transcripts from most committee hearings where bills are discussed.

Like other issues that permeate the hallowed halls of Congress, the debate over how to post information on the Internet has become highly partisan.

During House discussion over a funding bill containing $211 million to upgrade congressional computers and telecommunications, Democrats complained that “netizens” contacting committee Web sites do not get access to Democrats’ views on pending legislation without first viewing the Republican message. If a Republican committee chairman does not want his panel to have a home page at all, Democratic members are not allowed to post their own information.

“It is ironic to me that the GOP, which has gotten so much credit for cyber-Congress, would make the first policy about Web pages a restrictive one,” said Rep. Vic Fazio (D-West Sacramento).

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) responded that Republicans “have bent over backwards to make equal access, equal opportunity and equal funding for virtually everything we do.”

A possible compromise is being promoted by Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.), who was appointed by Gingrich to help navigate the transition to the Information Age. Republican and Democratic messages, Ehlers said would be treated equally--”linked in exactly the same way, same letter-size, same markers, and say, ‘Please click here if you want the minority viewpoint. Please click here if you want the majority viewpoint.’ ”

Even in the arms-length world of electronic communication, it is easy to tell who is turned on and who is tuned out on Capitol Hill.

Internet-friendly members cross political party lines, ages, and geographic regions. The only general rule is that the more recently a member has been elected, or survived a fiercely competitive race, the more techno-savvy he or she is likely to be.

Some ground rules govern the content of House and Senate home pages. Campaign activities and fund-raising efforts, for example, are off limits. But there is plenty of room for experimentation.

House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) offers up a Web page titled “The D Files” that is dedicated to criticism of Democrats. “The truth is in here,” it declares in dark, ominous letters. DeLay’s page also links visitors to the National Rifle Assn. and other conservative Web sites.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) serves up his own diet-busting recipes for maple oatmeal cookies and scallops baked in cream and butter. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), one of Capitol Hill’s early Internet explorers, includes his recipe for Cape Cod fish chowder.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) appears on his Web page knee-deep in the Pacific, wearing a wetsuit and clutching a surfboard emblazoned “Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Surfing.” Rep. Bill Baker (R-Danville) includes a photo of the lawmaker, hoe in hand, tilling the family garden.

Ehlers, a physicist-turned-congressman who was asked by Gingrich to lead the information revolution on Capitol Hill, posts audio clips of his voice extolling the virtues of the Internet.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), whose page is considered by many observers to be among the best, blazed an early trail by inviting constituents to participate in an e-mail survey on health care reform. Her page features a separate e-mail address for “kids” plus links to youth-related topics, including a crisis hotline and a digital library with audio clips of historical figures.

On the other end of the spectrum are members like Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), who does not even use a typewriter and considers the Information Age a lot of cyberhype, and Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who may eventually set up a home page but without a public e-mail address.

“He’s not altogether convinced about the security,” said an aide, noting that Gallegly wants to ensure that information disseminated under his name is, in fact, coming from his office.

Still, progress is being made. Freshman Rep. Rick White (R-Wash.) is picking up more sponsors for a resolution that would force the House to broadcast the results of legislative negotiations that now go on behind closed doors. Bringing his colleagues into cyberspace--”in many cases kicking and screaming”--is a constant struggle, White said, but it should eventually make congressional operations more efficient and less costly.

One reason for the stumbling start is Congress’ archaic computer system. The 435-member House has a collection of different computers that do not always relate well with each other. Electronic messages are transmitted to a central computing station, decoded, then resent to the proper site, sometimes arriving hours, or even days, later. Many staff members have given up on using the message system.

Ehlers’ assignment is to get everyone talking the same computer language, with compatible hardware and software. Each House office has been given money for a new computer. Ehlers also is teaching hands-on computer basics to about 80 House members.

Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) insisted that his colleagues are committed to placing more legislative information on the Internet. They just want to make sure that they are posting the right material, with proper safeguards against tampering, he said.

“Deliberation is very important to this process. But it’s also important for us to be accountable. I don’t see the two as necessarily contradictory,” he said.

The Internet address for the master list of House pages is https://www.house.gov/MemberWWW.html. The Senate address is https://www.senate.gov/senator/members.html.