Blumenthal: Time For Computers On Senate Floor
HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) -- Even in this day and age, paper continues to rule on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
Bills -- some containing thousands of pages -- are placed daily on the desks of all 100 members.
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal is among those fighting for a technological update.
It's time, he says, to allow laptops and other electronic devices into the chamber.
"Part of the Senate's charm is its antiquity -- the desks that date from hundreds of years ago, there's still a couple of spittoons on the floor," Blumenthal told WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau. "But the Senate has to be brought into the 21st century, and it will."
Currently, Senators are allowed to bring laptops onto the Senate floor, but they cannot use them there.
It will be up to the Senate Rules Committee to decide whether electronic devices will be permitted.
"When people ask, 'Have you read every line of that bill?" it would be a lot easier to answer 'yes' if we were permitted to have electronic devices -- laptops, computers -- on the floor of the Senate," Blumenthal said.