via EFF ANNOUNCEMENT OF ELECTRONIC MAIL SYSTEM BY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

 ANNOUNCEMENT OF ELECTRONIC MAIL SYSTEM BY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 Chairman Charlie Rose and Ranking Minority Member Bill Thomas of the
 Committee on House Administration announced today the pilot program of the
 Constituent Electronic Mail System.
   This groundbreaking new service will allow citizens to communicate
 directly with their Member of Congress by electronic mail. The House
 of Representatives has established an electronic gateway to the
 Internet, the vast computer network that is used currently by over 12
 million people worldwide. Participating Members of the House have been
 assigned public mailboxes which may be accessed by their constituents
 from their home computers. In addition, many libraries, schools and
 other public institutions now provide, or soon will provide, public
 access to the Internet.
   The Members of the House of Representatives who have agreed to
 participate in this pilot program are: Rep. Jay Dickey (AR-07), Rep.
 Sam Gejdenson (CT-02), Rep. Newt Gingrich (GA-06), Rep. George Miller
 (CA-07), Rep. Charlie Rose (NC-07), Rep. Fortney Pete Stark (CA-13),
 and Rep. Melvin Watt (NC-12). These Members will be making
 announcements in their congressional districts within the next few
 weeks to make their constituents aware of the new service.
   The Constituent Electronic Mail System represents a significant
 effort by the House of Representatives to expand communication with
 constituents. With the tremendous growth of electronic mail over the
 past several years, and the increasingly inter-connected nature of
 computer networks, the new service is a natural addition to the
 current methods of communication available to constituents. At the
 present time, House Members involved in the pilot program will largely
 respond to electronic mail messages from their constituents by postal
 mail, to ensure confidentiality.
   Constituents of House Members participating in the pilot program
 who wish to communicate with those Members will be asked to send a
 letter or postcard stating their interest to the Member's office. The
 request will include the constituent's Internet ``address,'' as well
 as that constituent's name and postal address. This process will allow
 Members to identify an electronic mail user as his or her constituent.
   The pilot e-mail program will continue until sufficient feedback
 from participating offices has been collected to allow improvements
 and modifications to the system. When House Information Systems and
 the Committee on House Administration are satisfied that the system is
 sufficiently error-free, other Members of the House will be allowed to
 add this new service as technical, budgetary and staffing concerns
 allow.
   For more information, Internet users are encouraged to contact the
 House of Representative's new on-line information service. Please send
 a request for information to CONGRESS () HR HOUSE GOV (see note).
   --
   NOTE: Please be advised that the commercial ``at'' symbol is not
 recognized by some computer systems when transmitted electronically.
 The ``at'' symbol is an important part of the electronic mail address
 for the U.S. House information service, and should be inserted in
 place of the question mark in the following example:
 ``CONGRESS?HR.HOUSE.GOV''


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