VOA常速英语:限制还是拥护社交媒体，国会分成两派

The moment last summer when it became clear Congress wasn’t keeping up with technology,

“You can help us win this battle, woman...”

Democrats defined the rules.And when the Republican opponents shut off camera showing the protest,representative Scott Peters turned to his phone to live broadcast.

“People were able to see the perspective that we have on the House floor everywhere in the world.So it was kind of a remarkable moment in the history of American government anyway.”

A moment Republican leaderships settling in for the 115th Congress hopes it won’t happen again. Under House rules, electronic devices have always been banned from the floor.Now their use could carry a penalty of up to 2500 dollars.

House speaker Paul Ryan says the changes help keep order, so lawmakers can do the people’s work.But John Lewis, the leader of last summer’s sit-in, says the fines violate freedom of speech.

“No Congress, no body, no committee has the power to tell us that we cannot stand up, speak up and speak truth to power.We have a right to dissent, we have a right to protest what is right.”

As American’s demand for transparency from government and younger voters make social media more mainstream,Congress will have to find a compromise.

“This kind of connection is so visceral and so immediate.Not only is the, his leadership, not appreciating that, they’re not adopting it,they’re not figuring out (how to) make it work, they are gonna ban it.”

And now that the President-elect is using twitter as his main method of communication with the American public,it could be too late to separate politicians from social media.

Analyst John Crandall told VOA via Skype,

“As the world becomes more dynamic,our Congress and our leaders should be thinking about how to simplify the way that our government communicates with our population.”

And with Republican controlled Congress, looking to institute big changes,Democrats may soon be turning back to social media despite the new fines.

“If there’s no other way to deal with this kind of stuff, to deal with this kind of gridlock,and the really, the suppression of issues that are so important.I think you might see this kind of thing again.”

Katherine Gypson on Capitol Hill, VOA news.