Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 11:35:51 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199910181535.LAA00446@mattababy.mit.edu>
From: belmonte@mit.edu (Matthew Belmonte)
To: CapuanoHR8@aol.com (Mike Capuano)
Subject: oppose Internet filtering provisions in HR 3037
Cc: mclark@cdt.org (Michael Clark)
X-CDT-MembID: ma08

Dear Representative Capuano
 
I write to ask you to oppose a federal mandate to use Internet filtering
software in schools and libraries, a provision which Ernest Istook has snuck
into the Labor and Education appropriations bill without any debate.  Local
governments and school districts, acting with the advice of students and 
parents, should be the ones to set policy on net access.  Filtering software
is one option, but the filtering is notoriously imprecise and it is always the
case that some Constitutionally protected speech is blocked.  

I hope, therefore, that you'll oppose provisions in HR 3037 that would allow
the federal government to meddle in these implementation details that should 
be decided at the local level.