Missouri senators divided on computers in chamber

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- An effort to allow state senators to use computers at their chamber desks is pitting Senate newcomers eager for change against veterans wedded to chamber tradition.

The drive is led by one of the nine Senate freshmen who formerly served in the Missouri House, where computers have been allowed on desks since 1997.

Sen. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, who proposed the change in Senate rules, believes computers would make senators more productive in the chamber. Opponents say computers would distract senators' attention from debate.

Although their debates are carried live over the Internet, senators have been slow to allow computers into the chamber. The last attempt to allow computers on Senate desks was made in 2000 and died in a committee.

Now, only Senate staff and reporters may use laptops, and it was just last year that senators reluctantly permitted reporters to access the Internet through a single phone line in the chamber.

'It's just a tool'

Shields said many of the Senate's newcomers became accustomed in the House to using their own laptop computers or those provided by the chamber.

"Some people take notes with a pencil and a paper, I take notes on a computer. It's just a tool," Shields said.

Computers would make the Senate more efficient, which is what state government is all about, said Shields, who spent 12 years in the House.

"I respect the traditions of the Senate, but the traditions of the Senate should not get in the way of good government," said Shields. "As the Senate becomes more made up of people who have come over from the House, then I think they'll want computers in the chamber."

But Sen. John Russell, who was first elected to the Legislature in 1962, expressed concern that freshman senators who formerly served in the House don't understand the nature of the Senate.

"Until the House members see how we operate over here, they don't really know what they're asking for," said Russell, R-Lebanon, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "Could you imagine if we allowed computers in there? We'd have newspapers in there next!

Under Senate rules, newspapers cannot be read in the chamber, although photocopies of newspaper articles on sheets of paper are allowed.