[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 16, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1290-E1291]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   MAKING CONGRESS MORE USER FRIENDLY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. RICK WHITE

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 16, 1996

  Mr. WHITE. Mr. Speaker, over the course of the past 18 months, I have 
been proud to support the reforms that we have made to change the way 
our Government, especially this institution, works. I supported 
applying all laws to Congress because we need to live under the same 
laws as everyone else. I supported efforts to cut committees and 
committee staff because I felt that Congress had grown too large. And, 
I supported the efforts to reduce the amount of money Congress spends 
on itself because we need to lead by example as we work to balance the 
budget.
  But, Mr. Speaker, there is still more that this Congress needs to do 
in order to improve the way this institution works.

[[Page E1291]]

  Today, thanks to the leadership of Congressman David Dreier, the 
House task force on committee review has developed a plan to make 
improvements to the way our committee system works. For the past year 
we have studied what changes need to be made in order to streamline and 
improve the committee process.
  As a member of that task force, I focused on developing the proposal 
that will get the House wired for the 21st century. Today, I am 
introducing a resolution that changes the House rules so committee 
documents will be available over the Internet.
  It's time to make Congress a little more user friendly. As more and 
more people go to the net to get information, we need to make it as 
easy as possible for our constituents to find our what Congress is 
doing.
  We've been doing things the same way for over 40 years and last year 
this new Congress finally realized that a new approach was needed. The 
committee reforms that have been proposed will help in our continued 
efforts to change the way Congress is run.
  This proposal will amend the rules governing House committees to help 
make the attached committee documents available electronically to the 
public by January 3, 1997. In addition, the resolution calls for the 
establishment of a central electronic data base for official documents 
and the implementation of standards that provide guidance to committees 
to help make information public.
  Rule changes are needed because most bills and reports are printed on 
paper and filed manually with the Clerk of the House. In many 
instances, this prohibits people from having the chance to look at the 
bill before it is voted on in committee. Under this resolution, we can 
help improve public access to Congress by putting more information on 
the Internet.
  Getting Congress on-line has been, and will continue to be, an on-
going project. Through this resolution and the educational efforts of 
the Internet Caucus, we are going to keep the pressure on to make sure 
that Congress finds its way through cyberspace.

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