At its first business meeting of the year, the House Agriculture Committee passed around computer tablets instead of paper copies of the business at hand, which happened to be a letter to the Budget Committee. “I would like to call your attention to the letter in your iPads,” said chairman Michael Conaway in speeding through an introduction of the new equipment, which he described as “an effort to go green, save trees, that sort of stuff.”
Digital dissemination of documents would be a marked change for the committee, where members often face a thick stack of material at hearings and snowdrifts of paper during bill-drafting sessions.
“Just utilizing more technology is all,” said a committee spokeswoman when asked to explain the tablets. “Today was the first time the committee has used them.” Each committee member was assigned a tablet and Conaway reminded them to leave the devices in the hearing room.
Capitol Hill denizens often play a minor game of trying to snare a copy of important documents that were distributed only to lawmakers during hearings. In one instance, when the United States and the EU were battling over grain exports, a reporter walked away with the USDA’s list of countries that would be offered U.S. grain at subsidized prices in coming months.