Congress lacks tech savvy

Congress is still inhibited by its inability to adapt to
modern technological tools, according to a nonprofit organization that promotes
a more effective Congress.

From congressional websites to constituent e-mail,
lawmakers and their staffs continue to underperform and overextend themselves,
said the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) in a report released Monday.

{mosads}Following a period in September during which congressional
e-mail was limited to prevent House websites from crashing due to constituents
voicing their concerns over the economic bailout package, the CMF, after
hundreds of interviews and surveys, suggested increasing the technological
funding and resources available to congressional offices.

“There is only one recommendation for the institution
itself, but it is a significant and politically charged one,” the report
states. “If individual congressional offices ever hope to manage the volume of
constituent communications and perform the rest of their duties successfully,
we believe Congress must provide them with more resources.

“This could mean additional budget, additional staff, new
enterprise services or technologies, or any number of solutions to help them
work more effectively and efficiently.”

CMF is planning to work with members of Congress to form
a task force in hopes of creating a plan to improve office interoperability and
constituent communication.

“What’s most surprising is how simple the solution is,”
said Tim Hysom, CMF’s director for communications and technology services.
“This is by no means rocket science.”

Hysom said CMF plans to draw on the resources of the key
overseers of Congress’s technological capabilities, including the Chief Administrative
Office, the House Administration Committee, the Senate Rules and Administration
Committee and the Senate Sergeant at Arms.

“It’s not enough to put out solutions without a mechanism
to act,” Hysom said. “It’s going to take out-of-the-box thinking.”

From growing the limited number of 10 technological
service providers to shifting the way staffers think about electronic
communications, the CMF has a plethora of suggestions to make Congress more
effective.

“Many in Congress still view technology as merely
providing tools to accomplish the same tasks they have always performed,” said
the CMF report. “They view e-mail as postal mail that is sent electronically.
They think of PDAs as replacements for paper schedules. They view websites as
direct mail pieces that can be seen on a computer.

“But this mindset fails to take into account the very
significant ways that the Internet has altered the public’s access to
information, expanded coalition-building opportunities and created fresh
communications habits across the entire electorate,” the reported stated.

After a campaign that thrived off of unprecedented
support from Internet fundraising and communication, much speculation falls on
President-elect Obama’s administration to set new technological precedents.

“I think a lot of people are looking to Obama’s
administration to set an example,” Hysom said. “But Congress is already headed
in that direction.”