When the legislature returns to Raleigh in January, the Senate will take a bold technological leap into 1992.
For the first time, senators will be allowed to have laptops at their desks. They won't have e-mail or access to the Internet, but they can have laptops. The computers would allow Senators access to the information available on the legislature's Web site. Senate leader Marc Basnight changed a long-standing rule banning electronic devices.
"There's been some discussion for a while of allowing access to information by computer," said Schorr Johnson, a spokesman for Basnight. "There has also been the concern of the tradition of the Senate session and any disruption. This represents a compromise."
The laptops would allow Senators to find a statute or bill quickly. But they won't have much else (sorry, no Minesweeper or solitaire). Senators will have to request the machines, which will stay in the chamber. The computers will be refurbished from older laptops the legislature already owns, so the rule change won't cost taxpayers anything, Johnson said. The plan also means senators will likely be wrestling with computers that are long past their prime.
The House has no rule banning computers and laptops are common in the chamber. As far as Dome knows, there have been no reports of House members reading Perez Hilton during sessions.
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