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November 2, 1997

Breast Cancer Petition Draws Net
Out of Niche Political Issues
By JERI CLAUSING Bio
 WASHINGTON — Representatives Anna Eshoo and Rosa DeLauro couldn’t get the support they needed on Capitol Hill for bills to improve insurance coverage for breast cancer. So they turned to a growing political arena: the Internet.

Credit: Nicole Schooley / CyberTimes
With the help of health-care and online companies, the Democratic congresswomen built a Web site where they have gathered 8,000 signatures and 2,000 personal stories from women and families affected by breast cancer. The personal accounts and petitions they hope will change the minds of House leaders who so far have refused to grant committee hearings on their bills.

“This is an issue that has just touched too many people,” Eshoo, of California, said in an interview on Friday. “There have been tens of thousands of woman every year who are not only victimized by the disease but victimized by the shortcomings in their insurance policies. So I thought it would be unique if we could marry it with the force of the technology, make optimum use of technology for women to tell their stories.”

Eshoo’s campaign is just one example of a growing interest in Congress in using the Internet to gain support for issues.

The most notable Internet campaigns have been for Internet-related issues, like those opposing the Communications Decency Act and controls on encryption technology. But some of those involved in trying to bring technology into the political process say it is spreading to more traditional arenas.

“The impression that the Hill is slow to come into the information age, I think that is changing rapidly,” said Jonah Seiger, communications director for the Center for Democracy and Technology, which has been involved in sophisticated online campaigns against the CDA and encryption regulations and has also worked to bring members of congress and their hearings online.

“Most members now have a Web site,” he said. “Most members are beginning to see there is a real constituency emerging there.”

Eshoo said using technology seemed like a natural to her, as she represents the California Silicon Valley’s 14th District, what she calls “the heart and soul of technology.”

“The response has been remarkable,” she said. “And I think that sends a couple of messages: That going online is not simply the private reserve of hackers and techies. This is something that has permeated in our society, and I welcome this. ... I’ve always viewed (the Internet) as something that can broaden and deepen democracy. That’s why I think it’s not only exciting, but I think very important.”

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The breast cancer campaign was launched in mid-September and was scheduled to run through the end of October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Since the response has been better than expected, Eshoo said, the site will stay up through Thanksgiving. Then staff members will begin compiling the stories and signatures into printed packages to present House committee chairmen when they return from the holiday break.

Chris Casey, technology adviser to the Senate Democratic Leadership’s Technology and Communication Committee and author of The Hill on the Net: Congress Enters the Information Age, said he believes Eshoo’s campaign is a “great example of what people can expect to see more of.”

“Members of Congress are more and more actively using the Web as a tool to gather support for their issues,” he said.

In a few other examples, Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican who has introduced legislation to lift restrictions on encryption exports and ban any attempts for mandatory key recovery of scrambled data, has a special SAFE Act page, and Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, has a sophisticated home page with links to a number of special issues, including land mines and breast cancer.

“I think it is becoming more and more common, particularly as Congress becomes more and more comfortable with the Web,” Casey said, noting that 92 of the nation’s 100 senators now have a Web presence.

“It’s actually getting to where the point is within reach where every Senator will have a home page and public e-mail address.”

Still, Congress has lagged in its ability to integrate e-mail into everyday communications. For a variety of reasons, many offices still do not communicate with their constituents electronically. But most do get e-mail messages, and Casey says that just because e-mails aren’t always answered electronically doesn’t mean they aren’t read.

“Sometimes I think people mistakenly think since it is so easy to send an e-mail to the world that it is given less weight,” he said. “There are right ways and wrong ways to do it. Just like a handwritten letter might be given more due than pre-printed cards, as will a well-crafted e-mail than someone who spams the Hill.”

Eshoo said her campaign was an experiment, but one that worked “exactly the way I hoped it would. I think it has been more than worthwhile.”

The breast cancer Web page has had the support of several health-care groups and is being maintained by Sapient. In addition, Yahoo! provided public service banner ads during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The page promotes a bill by Eshoo to require health insurance companies that provide coverage for mastectomies to cover reconstructive surgery, and one by DeLauro, of Connecticut, to require insurance companies to provide at least 48 hours of inpatient hospital care following a mastectomy and a minimum of 24 hours following a lymph node dissection for the treatment of breast cancer.

Both bills have been referred to the House Commerce Committee and its Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, as well as the House Education and the Workforce Committee and its Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations.

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Jeri Clausing at jeri@nytimes.com welcomes your comments and suggestions.


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