Arlen Specter: “I will utilize this occasion to discuss the open house town meetings which I held during the course of the past recess…”

“I will utilize this occasion to discuss the open house town meetings which I held during the course of the past recess in August to share with my colleagues and those who may be watching on C-SPAN 2 some of the observations that I found in traveling in my State of Pennsylvania and in meeting with my citizens. I make it a point to have meetings in every one of the Pennsylvania counties as often as I can, and by the end of September, by the end of this month, I will have covered all of my 67 counties, something that I find very, very valuable. What I do as a matter of format--and I think this is similar to what many Senators do--is I make a very brief statement, as to what we have done, and then I throw the floor open for questions. Usually I get somewhere in the range of 15 to 20 questions. Regrettably, our mail allocation has been cut down. This is something which I think the Senate ought to give serious consideration to revising. I believe that we ought to be frugal when it comes to mailings which do have some political import, but where a Senator himself or herself goes out into a community to appear to make a presentation and respond to questions, I think that is the very essence of our democratic process.”