Spared an attack on 9/11 by the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93, a justifiably spooked Congress held hearings less than a year later to address how it might conduct business if its members were unable to meet at the Capitol.
Would an e-Congress be a viable alternative?
That very question upset Donald R. Wolfensberger, an expert on Congress who warned against it. “Building a computer system on which members could not only access floor or committee debates but actually vote on pending questions, will lead to what I call a reverse ‘Field of Dreams’ scenario,” he testified. Rather than, “If you build it, they will come,” he predicted, it would be, “Build it, and they will stay away.”
Would that be a bad thing?
Read more about the case for (and against) an e-Congress at Politics Daily.
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