Shouldn't the Senate adopt rules allowing Senators to vote on bills from outside the Capitol?

[backscatter712]

Right now, it looks like you have to physically be in the Capitol Building to cast your vote in person.

Right now, Ted Kennedy's in Florida undergoing cancer therapy. Brown is out of town dealing with a family member's funeral.

Can somebody here explain why a Senator shouldn't be able to transmit a vote in from a remote location? Say from a hospital bed? Can somebody explain why we shouldn't allow them to do that when we have these amazing things called telephones and Internet tubes that allow one to pass messages from one point in the world to another almost instantaneously?

It'd be cheaper than having flights chartered for Sen. Brown to bring him to DC just for one vote...

[jsamuel]

1. no, it has good reasons

[rossl]

2. They'll miss the debate

I don't know too much about how the Senate works, but one thought is that they'll miss the debate on the floor of the Senate. You could say that there's CSpan, but there's not guarantee they'll watch it.

[backscatter712]

4. They have these devices called telephones.

And they have this new-fangled Internet, which allows Senators to communicate with each other remotely. I'm told that in the business world, they have this thing called "teleconferencing" which allows people in remote locations to participate in meetings and such.

C'mon. We all know the Senate still lives in the 19th century, but this is ridiculous. Can't an exception be made for Senators with family emergencies, or for Senators who are in the hospital?

[Ocracoker16]

8. Exceptions should be make for Kennedy annd Brown

Kennedy is an elderly man battling brain cancer while Brown is dealing with a death in the family. I totally agree that the Senate could make use of technology so that senators like the two we are talking about could vote from whereever they are.

[rossl]

14. I guess I was worried

that people would take advantage of it and it would just fail to come to the Senate and vote on things without knowing the first thing about them. It's just another way "the greatest deliberative body on Earth" could fail us, in my eyes.

[havocmom]

15. Voting via phone has drawbacks

like, phoning it in may open the way for cheney to wield power, via holding a gun on people.

Think about the means of exploiting such methods

[Ocracoker16]

5. They don't need to be there for the debate

They can skip the debate. The vote is just scheduled at an appointed time. The people who show up then can vote. There are some isssues that are debated over weeks. If someone isn't feeling well or is traveling they might miss a few days, but that wouldn't take away their ability to vote jif they were present at the scheduled hour.

[tridim]

3. Of course, as long as there are measures to make sure it's not abused.

[abluelady]

6. So Is This Not Going to Pass? n/t

[backscatter712]

12. It'll pass, but it'll take a while and set the taxpayers back a few bucks.

In Sen. Brown's case, Obama ordered a .gov jet to fly Brown to DC solely so he can cast his vote for the stimulus bill, then fly him back to Ohio for his mother's wake. That can't be cheap...

[abluelady]

13. Yes, I've Since Learned

I heard that he'll be there at 10:30pm to vote. I didn't realize the Senate could keep the vote open forever!

[spanone]

7. i agree, if you're unable to attend you should get a feed and be able to vote

but the truth is, these bastards would totally abuse it.

[Ocracoker16]

9. good point

They might need to have standards for determining who would be allowed to vote via technology. If they said that everyone could do it, I think some would definitely abuse it.

[customerserviceguy]

10. Isn't there some value

in being able to actually speak with each other face-to-face, in person? Or maybe I'm thinking of a far less partisan time, when Senators were actually considered statesmen when they could persuade collegues to support legislation on its merits, rather than which lobbyists contributed the most money.

[Ocracoker16]

11. I think it is dissapointing that lobbyists are calling the shots and

senators are less interested in vigorously debating the issues.

[The Straight Story]

16. Heck, if we are going do that - let us all vote on these items from home

via phone/net. Won't need them pesky congress people then :)