José E. Serrano: “I do not want to beat this subject to death, but I think we really have to understand what we are talking about here.…”

“I do not want to beat this subject to death, but I think we really have to understand what we are talking about here. The new way that this Congress and everyone in this country will put forth information is through the Internet. Right in this Hall today, in the Capitol today, throughout Washington, DC, there are young people, for instance, who are visiting during summer vacation. These young people will go back in September and begin school once again. More and more every day they get their information through the Internet. One of the things that I tell people about my web page is that I want to reach a point where they can get as much information about government as possible from the Library of Congress to the Smithsonian to local institutions in my district to how I vote and how I think and what I feel about certain issues. To now tell people that they can visit the majority party but that they have no access to the minority party on its own with a different view is really from the beginning of this procedure to set out censorship rather than freedom. What kind of a message are we sending? This is totally improper. The best way to see what this is like is to look at it this way. Imagine if visitors were allowed to visit the chairman of the committee but were not allowed to visit the office of the minority leader of the committee.”