From: squatch@Athena.MIT.EDU
Message-Id: <9306041417.AA21307@alfredo>
To: et-people@Athena.MIT.EDU
Subject: First the Pres. now the House
Date: Fri, 04 Jun 93 10:17:33 EDT


Here info on how to contact the House of Reps. by e-mail

>>> 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''