Sens Booker and McCaskill urge a more tech-savvy Senate

Sens Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) sent a letter to the Senate Rules Committee, pressing to make it easier to approve new vendors, adopt cloud-based technology and publish legislative information in simple, universal formatting, among other things. "Our aim is to remove unnecessary barriers to technological creativity while best serving constituents and saving taxpayer resources,” they wrote in a letter to Chairman Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Ranking Member Charles Schumer (D-NY). They asked the committee to rewrite rules that deal with lawmakers’ use of bulk e-mails to constituents. The current rules, they say, were written before the use of electronic communication and do not always translate. They want more access to vendors and new rules that govern the language and images that can be used in the e-mails.

Separately, they want the Senate to pre-approve a number of already popular content management systems, like WordPress. To bring the Senate rules in line with the House, they also want to be able to use their franking privileges -- traditionally used to send letters through the mail without charge -- to buy online ads to promote events and constituent services. The senators also want more authority to track their social media statistics with the help of outside companies -- a particular interest to Sen Booker, who is likely the most prolific Twitter user in the chamber. They also want the Senate to set up a website that tracks the running action on the Senate floor and to publish bills, amendments, testimony and transcripts in XML formatting, which would make it easier for outsiders to analyze the information in bulk.