The House is thinking about letting its members use Skype...

The House is thinking about letting its members use Skype to connect with constituents. But the VoIP service will have to pass a security test first. At Republican leaders’ urging, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., this week asked the House Administration Committee and the chamber’s chief administrative officer to look into the matter. “The Speaker wants Members to be able to use the latest technologies to communicate with their constituents,” said a spokesman. Pelosi asked the committee and the administrative officer “to further explore whether Skype can be utilized in a manner that will not compromise the House information security infrastructure and policies that were implemented in 2006.” Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio was one of six top House Republicans who signed a letter to Pelosi and Administration Committee Chairman Robert Brady, D-Pa., on the subject April 19. “Under current House rules … lawmakers wishing to communicate with their constituents by video are forced to spend considerable taxpayer funds to rent teleconferencing equipment that employs older technology because they are barred from using Skype and similar state-of-the-art tools, which are virtually free,” he said. “As many businesses have discovered, Skype can be used safely on enterprise networks, such as those used by the Members of Congress,” said Christopher Libertelli, Skype’s senior director of government and regulatory affairs.