Computers remain off limits to Mo. senators

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Efforts to bring the Missouri Senate into the computer age have crashed, again.

Senate leaders pulled the plug Monday on a proposal to let senators have laptop computers at their chamber desks, after opponents attached restrictions.

The only people now allowed to use computers in the Senate chamber are staff members who draft amendments and members of the news media. But some senators use devices like BlackBerrys and iPhones to check e-mail and the Internet.

A proposed rule change would have let senators use laptops as long as they closed the screens while debating. The proposal was amended to ban the use of all electronic communication devices during debate and to limit computer use only to Senate activities.

That's when Senate leaders who supported the original amendment set it aside.