A bill to amend existing campaign finance laws so candidates can accept free Internet accounts was reintroduced in Congress Thursday.
The Internet Election Information Act, sponsored by Representative Rick White (R-Washington), would let Internet service providers offer free Net access to all federal candidates. Under current campaign finance laws, candidates cannot accept free Net accounts from interactive computer services. Last year, White's bill passed in the House overwhelmingly but died in the Senate.
"It's time to debug our elections laws for the 21st century," White said in a press release. "With a simple technical change to the law we can help promote more open debate in cyberspace."
In November 1995, CompuServe offered free Net accounts to candidates, but the Federal Election Commission unanimously voted that accepting free Net access was illegal.
