Arlen Specter: “I have reserved time for an amendment which would deal with funding for mailings for open house town meetings. The…”

“I have reserved time for an amendment which would deal with funding for mailings for open house town meetings. The budgets today are very restrictive. In years gone by, there was an opportunity for a Senator to schedule an open house town meeting in a county seat and send out postal patron notices to everybody in the county. Then, an open house town meeting would be held where a relatively small number of people would appear, but at least everybody in the county had notice that the Senator was coming. Everyone had an opportunity to hear a short report about what was going on in Washington and then an opportunity to ask the Senator questions. We are under considerable fire and criticism on the issue of fundraising and the issue of access. For example, when we have fundraisers and people attend, they certainly do have access to Senators. There is no way to have a fundraiser where people attend without having that kind of access. The question then arises: Is that kind of access unfair? I believe there is a very good answer to that by having the Senator go to the county seat, and make it convenient for people in the county to have access to the Senator to ask questions. The concept of having a town meeting to let people express themselves is something that I believe is very important and very fundamental. The budget we have today does not allow for that.”