Minutes for an Opening Statement to the happy halloween, everybody. Im dressed as americas most maligned superhero, congressman, able to fly across the country in six hours on alaska airlines. [laughter] we were thinking about titling this hearing frankenstein how the house mailing standards have haunted members for decades, but i suppose we should go to the official un spooky title for the record. Likeue most of the issues that fall into the committees mandate and work of the house he commission on the congressional mailing standards it is very inside baseball. To most people, frank is a name or a hot dog but the reality is for members of congress the congressional frank is actually fundamental to how we communicate with our constituency and every time we respond to the requests were sent newsletters or notices about upcoming townhomes we used to frank and its no surprise with the rise of social media, congress has seen an overall decline. Ten years ago it spent an averae of 58,000 on frank male and todays members spend an average of 26,000. Obviously theres a lot of variation by district and by member. It doesnt get around the factt social media has had a tremendous impact on how congress communicates with its constituents. Ten years ago they didnt even havet a Digital Media staff and today almost every committee has won including hours and given these changes in the way congress and the American People communicate, todays hearing is important. If history is any indicator, the platforms will continue to rapidly evolve, and Congress Needs n to adapt so that members can communicate as effectively as possible with the people they represent, and i know representative susan davis put a lot of thought into these issues and have ideas about how to modernize it carried members need to understand the differences between the platforms so that they can make smart choices about how to best communicate. It comes with a geographical constraints in some social media platforms, advertising the frank male doesnt. So the bottom line is communicating is a lot easier today but also a lot more complicated. I look forward to what the witnesses have to say about these issues and its important to understand the history as well as the modern trends and how the members communicate with their constituents. The committee is focused on making Congress Work better so we can better serve the American People, and i thinkpl this hearg is in support of this mission. And most dont even know about or understand to be behind the speed of communications we all want to effectively communicate and get back to our constituents we have heard from many of our colleagues who have ideas including the process for goes on this topic to step up to voice their opinion in the way we do things and im very grateful for that because they experience the rules and regular an experience and are quick to highlight improve those suggestions perk i look forward from hearingng today on this halloween day what a better way to start itth off. Spirit today we welcome testimony that we call the davis panel. Serving as chair House Commission on congressional mailingds standards to share your knowledge of the franking process each will have five minutes of testimony then we go on to the next Panel Representative davis you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you very much chairman and vice chairman you do understand bricco i do appreciate you pointing that out and members of the select committee it is a pleasure to join you on this historic day ofte what has to be the first franking stein hearing. [laughter] i want to acknowledge the administration all play a key role of the communications the franking rules have spooked members and staff and constituents over the years but the good news we can make the whole franking process less scary and more effective. Contrary to what many believe it was not created to frighten people but rather with a Good Intention to preventing members of taxpayer funds for personal political or commercial use however after nearly two decades we have seen the rules have the unintended sidelo effect to slow things down when they conduct official business. Y it has two main components which go handinhand Greater Transparency and a simpler set of rules that ensures greater member accountability we can aachieve transparency easily by making the frank advisory opinions Available Online moving as it does for Financial Disclosure or travel reports and tribal filings and statements of disbursements. The whole idea is to have communications be available to constituents and the public which really does discourage the advantage of the franking privilege. Combined with transparency and with those new list of rules we are developing and the staff is pulling those together. As we work on that package the Modernization Committee relating for a Digital Communication my written testimony goes into greater titail but i willig and with the Digital Communications under the jurisdiction. And then to review all communications that Modernization Committee should evaluate the appropriateness. And then to transfer social media followers from Campaign Accounts from time to time and then to maintain appropriate separation and use technology that is also reported and done by hand perhaps we could fix it with a unique barcode. I will wrap up now because i know the votes are fast approaching it is a pleasure working with all of you and your staff as well we look forward to your next set of recommendations. Spent thank you mister chairman and to the vice chair and to the Franking Commission. Its an honor to speak from the side of the dais to talk about something that folks around washington dont take the time to delve into to communicating with our constituents i have to command my colleague miss davis to implement that make the frank easier but were not done yet and i have to say those those that take these franking request with my staffers they do a great job to make sure we work with the members to implement what we put in place. We actually try to make the process easier. We are in the 21st century but we are using paper. That isap the process faster and for both of us on the commission. Finally there is an appetite umbel sides to roll up our sleeves as the chair said to come up with some solutions and i believe we are doing that. I am very happy leader mccarthy appointed our colleague, a freshman and former staffer like many of us who have had to use the frank and is doing a great job to get involved to find out how we cand expand what we did with our teams last year. We had recent bipartisan negotiations and there is to focus oncu moot make improvements on. And then to get these told around faster and then with the 21st century. Let me outline a few reasons and then are very bureaucratic literally measuring the size of pictures many of the rules that we follow are set by precedent between staff for decades and then to codify those into rules and regulations so we dont have any changes that is something i am forward to working with brian and susan. Its hard to follow rules when they are not written down and transparent. Also when franking is needed we should have an automatic approval process. What are the consequences of members and staff dont follow the rules cracks does it make sense and add going to 500 people that cost 20 goes under same review under 50000 taxpayer dollars going in the mail quickset privacy is not the same expectation we should increase for privacy standards i also believe there is a check and balance with constituents and the american taxpayer that should replace and as they contemplate recommendations members need to send communications to their constituents reasonable regulations are necessary to prevent abuse said the guidance need to be transparent and accessible and easy to understand. Encouraging the members and i will yield back. I know its a busy morning for use of thank you for making time. Now we will invite the next panel of witnesses to take their seats. We wille start providing introductions in the interest of time. The first witness is senior fellow at Government Affairs at Georgetown University prior to joining ta oh watching franking and separation of powers and appropriations and tradition all Administration Agencies and detailed to the House Appropriations with 2010 and 2011. Joshua tucker professor politics at New York University is a coprincipal investigator at nyu i laboratory and codirector of the center for social and Political Behavior specializing in comparativeph politics with emphasis on lectures and voting with use of social media to facilitate. Also a co editor of the monkey cage that appears in the Washington Post the final witness over the past 15 years has worked with Congressional Offices to streamline new technologies to develop Software Solutions for Congressional Offices fulltime worked at the fireside end of the year my did your oily oral testimony is limited to five minutes and without objection you and statements are part of the record you are now recognized for five minutes chairman and vice chairman and members of the committee thank you for the opportunityty to testify today im senior fellow from Georgetown University along with the Congressional Research service including member communication the legislative branch patriot committing a goal of s the eye provided historical and contextual review of frank and privilege i discuss its origins and rationale the longstanding criticism in the framework congress uses for franking this is a Building Block of Representative Democracy the information of activity cannot flow from constituents to be less capable of congressional action likewise if constituentsue cannot give preferences to members then action is less likely to reflect Public Opinion from the 19th century predominately by members could also be sent to congress by constituents the legislative franking privilege dates continuously in the United States from the First Congress from when it was temporarily abolished the modern system has a reform passed in 1973 coming from the late eighties including restrictions to produce seeing frank mail material and expenditures exposure of individual members and preelection bands the past 20 years the population of other Electronic Communications are a bill onn top of the existing franking regulations first is financially wasteful gives unfair advantage to incumbents and Congressional Elections in 2018 house member spent under 78 million pieces of unsolicited mail 26. Million dollars and average cost of 35 cents per piece these are small by standards in 1988 and 2018 official congressional postage cost drop by over 80 percent of the contemporary costs of mailing is increasingly smaller number in 2485 percent of offices sent at least one mass mailing in 2018 only 61 percent furthermore over half thefu cost was accrued by offices averaging 216,000 of massve mailing expenses spending more than a quarter of their mra. As has been the case for decades freshen members spend much more on mass mailings and senior members and overall frank cost is higher in election years and nonelection years throughout history Technological Developments have altered communications and triggered regulatory changes the rise of computergenerated mailing list in the sixties have expanded to reach constituents thehe explosion of the communications of the 21st century began changing how members and constituents communicate. Social media with interaction has no cost to member or constituent these changes question the relevance of a traditional frank which is a smaller portion from recent years. Over 78 million pieces of mass mailing 2018 and then 1 billion pieces of Mass Communication this cost on average less than one half of one cent per piece 70 times less expensive than the mass mailings as publicin policy there are five dimensions who was entitled . How much where it can be sent and when it can be sent in addition policy choices have transparency for those cost to be accounted for and paid for using a variety of Regulatory Frameworks in the past the contemporary system is quite different from those structures that preceded it in with the rapidly changing communication environment of the 21st century thank you for having me today i look forward to your questionsns. Doctor tucker you are recognized. Members of the select committee thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I am Joshua Tucker professor tpolitics that New York University in my testimony today i like to highlight the following four points first despite recent controversies of platforms there appears to be an noticeable drop of social media usage among adults that means platform for reaching us populations second there is a great deal of variation how social media tools can communicate with the public to set up the platforms themselves as well as the preferences to different members of m Congress Third there are crucial distinctions u. S. Postal service and social media platforms in particular members have much less control over how messages are delivered into who and in retrospect how well these are working ongoing efforts available for outside research and analysis should be an important concern for members of congress and access is necessary for the functioning iod impact of congressional communication efforts the third and fourth points i will address my remaining a marks beginning observations of the klatt Platform Business model first social media platform sell advertisements of messages from congress viewed by the public appear alongside of those that have no control this is a franking policy that allows advertisements to be allowed to be sent in the mail by Congress Also media is not geographically constrained although different by platform is practically impossible to make sure those messaged on social media is only seen by one constituent one is that Congressional Communications are no longer written with one constituent in mind so all members will have incentives to think about national as opposed to a liberal audience it will be impossible to ensure quality through social media it will always be the case members of larger numbers of followers have greater reach than those with fewer followers. Third most social media platforms have proprietary algorithm which is the secret sauce those that display content in any manner other than a chronological o approach no one outside the Company Knows how they determine what people actually see s this means members of congress dont know how to control how or if their content is seen if they are at the mercy of any algorithm changes in the future. Wild individual users can have that exposure it is often severely constrain making it difficult for congress to monitor the communication strategy it is against this backdrop the importance of dataim access disturbingly large portion of the data necessary are locked inside social Media Companies and these are reluctant to share that data for outside analysisly one creason is the cost among those disclosures that are so high another is the prophecy movement that is necessary and salutary given the new digital environment but unfortunately outside research is Collateral Damage in the battle between government regulators and privacy advocates. As we think through these issues the prohibition for data does not mean it doesnt have assets but only those of the platform will mind the data learning the answers to the most pressing questions. Therefore we need to move beyond the paradigm shared the platform respect the privacy of their users which we all agree in the abstract but what fully embraces the tradeoff for legitimate privacy concerns and those to outside researchers on the other hand trying to study the impact of democracy were Congressional Offices trying to reach constituents c in this debate any sort of attempt to monitor the existence and impact of congressional meet communication will fall i look y forward to your questions. Thank you for your testimony you are now recognized. Thank you chairman and for the opportunity to speak today at the ceo of firesidengide a leading provider of crm technology in congress to allow over 150 members to manage all incoming letters from constituents with thoughtful responses as ceo ive had a front row seat to understand how they operate manage their mail and how to communicate with constituents weve had countless conversation with correspondents within the bureau with the understanding of the challenges to franking no doubt we have seen an explosion of communication over the last ten and 15 years to take these categorized more efficiently but the rules that govern outbound communication has not fundamentally changed over the last two decades i recommend a three overarching rules with that franking approval process. Imagine youre watching t