From: LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.BITNET (Public-Access Computer Systems Forum)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Subject: Congressional Information
Date: 16 Dec 92 13:26:56 GMT
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

3 Messages, 126 Lines
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From: Craig A. Summerhill <craig@cni.org>
Subject: Re:  Congressional Information

> Lee Jaffe writes:
> I asked the ALA Washington Office a while ago about reaching Congress
> via email and they said that they weren't using email yet.  One can
> hope that with Gore in the Executive Office this may change.
>  -- Lee Jaffe, UC Santa Cruz

Actually, the House of representatives has a network drop.  The record
appended below comes from the whois database on nic.ddn.mil.  I have never
been able to locate one for the Senate, and have no reason to believe
one exists.

However, before everyone who reads this floods the zone contact with e-mail
asking for the address of your Representative, let me assure you my
understanding coincides with Lee's statement above.  Congress isn't
accessible via the network.  In fact, don't even bother with 'fingers' etc.,
because they have a firewall setup...

But I'm going to disagree with Lee, and suggest that they won't be connected
in any meaningful way anytime soon -- even under a new Administration.  I
can't see how e-mail access would scale to this locus.  I calculate there
are roughly .5 million people in this country for every Representative.
Perhaps, a fraction of those people are on the Internet with a few more
connected via commercial gatewayed services like CompuServe, MCIMail and
Sprintmail.  The Congress would be hard pressed to justify the expenditure
in order to communicate with what is clearly a minority of the populus.

On the other hand, *if* everyone was connected and could send mail to their
Senator or Representative, I can't even begin to fathom to system management
nightmare this would present given our current networking tools.  Can you say
Ethernet meltdown?  How about information overload?  I knew you could. :*)

So, this joke floats around Washington about the installation of air-
conditioning into the Capital building.  Suppoosedly, it was the worst day
in the history of U.S. politics, because it meant the Congress could
thenceforth meet year-round.  I'll bet a surefire way to offset that "gain"
would be to give them all e-mail addresses and put them all on about
20 mailing lists/newsgroups!  :*)

Anyway, here's the nic.ddn.mil record:

> whois -h nic.ddn.mil house.gov

House Information Systems (HOUSE-DOM)
   House Annex II
   2nd and D Streets SW
   Washington DC 20515

   Domain Name: HOUSE.GOV

   Administrative Contact:
      Collins, Bud  (BC263)  bud@oxygen.HOUSE.GOV
      (202) 226-6280
   Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
      Schnizlein, John  (JS592)  johns@oxygen.HOUSE.GOV
      (202) 226-6290

   Record last updated on 14-Aug-92.

   Domain servers in listed order:

   NITROGEN.HOUSE.GOV           137.18.128.1
   ICM1.ICP.NET                 192.94.207.66

   Craig A. Summerhill
   Systems Coordinator and Program Officer
   Coalition for Networked Information
   1527 New Hampshire Ave., N.W.
   Washington, D.C.   20036
   Internet:  craig@cni.org

   <<<insert witty disclaimer here>>>
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From: reid@research.att.com
Subject: RE: Congressional Information

In response to the recent discussion re congressional e-mail I would
suggest trying this recent lead from the HUMANIST list:

(Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0416. Tuesday, 15 Dec 1992.):

(1)   Date:     Mon, 14 Dec 92 09:04:23 EST                   (23 lines)
      From:     "John M. Unsworth" <JMUEG@NCSUVM>
      Subject:  Erroneous Clinton Address

I apologize to all who tried to mail Jack Gill at the address I gave in
my last posting: I believe the following message indicates the correct
address for Mr. Gill and the Clinton/Gore transition team.

John Unsworth
------------------------------------------------------------

Date:         Sun, 13 Dec 1992 22:58:18 EST
From:         Anthea Tillyer <ABTHC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Erroneous 'Clinton address' -- help prevent spread

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
The correct address for Clinton/Gore is:75300.3115@compuserve.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I haven't tried this address yet, as I haven't anything to say.  You
might want to give it a try though.

Reid Fossey
AT&T Bell Laboratories
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From: jcl@deshaw.com (Jonathan Laventhol)
Subject: Re:  Congressional Information

> can we reach the President and Vice President by e-mail? What
> about the President-elect and Vice President-elect?  Thanks!

I know that the Clinton Transition Team is presently
considering things like this.  I'll post if I hear anything
more concrete.

Cheers,
J.
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