SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE BROADCASTS ONLINE HEARING 6/26/96 - Senator Conrad Burns of Montana, chairman of the Senate's Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee, has sponsored The Promotion of Commerce On-line in the Digital Era Act (Pro- CODE, nice name, but what a stretch getting there). The bill seeks to increase access to and allow export of powerful encryption and prevent government mandated use of key-escrow systems. If another step forward for online hearings, a hearing on Pro-CODE was broadcast live on the Internet.
Updates and information on the bill's status is being made available on the Net on Senator Burns Encryption Page
HOUSE GOP FRESHMAN UNVEIL HOME PAGE 6/27/96 - A home page dedicated to the entire freshman class of Republican Representatives appeared on the Net today, but at launch time it remained mostly "under construction". But who needs content when (PARTISANSHIP ALERT!) you can wait through the download of a 177k class picture of the all the freshmen on the House steps! Since it's launch, the "under construction" signs have started to replaced with links to the vision, press releases, and members of the GOP freshman class.
GOP Freshmen of the 104th Congress
HOUSE RESTRICTS ACCESS TO MINORITY HOME PAGES 7/3/96 - The direct link to the home page maintained by the House Banking Committee Democrats was dropped from the House server today, leaving no minority home pages that could be located directly from the House of Representatives home page. The dropped links are a result of a new policy adopted by the House Oversight Committee which requires that minority home pages only be accessible from the majority's page. Word is that efforts are underway to further restrict access to minority pages by linking to them via a CGI script in order to prevent any bookmarking or direct links. Stay tuned.
The House Committee Web Services page (which until recently included Minority links)
A good summary of the new Republican restrictions can be found on the home page of the Science Committee Minority
HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW Senator Rod Grams of Minnesota has been among the most vocal advocates in favor of re-opening Pennsylvaina Avenue in front of the White House, closed one year ago as a precaution against terrorist attack in an Oklahoma City style truck bombing. As other Members of Congress have for their causes, he took his case to the Net, building a special home page to promote the re-opening of the Avenue, complete with a picture of the White House trimmed with barbed wire. Press releases posted to Grams' gopher directory touted the success of his net campaign. But this special issues home page has disapeered with none of the fanfare with which it was announced, presumably withdrawn in response to the recent terrorist truck bombing against U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.
Press releases announcing Senator Grams' Pennsylvania Avenue home page are still online (1, 2), but the page itself is no longer be found
CLINTON/GORE CAMPAIGN ARRIVES ON THE WEB 7/10/96 - The Clinton/Gore campaign has come out of the Rose Garden and onto the web. Vice-President Gore unveiled the Clinton/Gore 96 home page on the Web today, joining the Dole campaign's site which appeared last September during the Republican primary season. So begins the first fully on-line race for the White House, with each candidate seeking to spread their message and reach out to supporters in Cyberspace. What nobody knows is what impact, if any, the net campaign will have in the end. But few candidates in '96 will want to take the chance that an online campagin could be significant.
Clinton/Gore 96
Bob Dole for President
That's all for now!
Regards,
Chris
Copyright ©1996 by Chris Casey
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