image via Depaul Law

Did you know that the daily Congressional Record is now printed on recycled paper?

According to house speaker Nancy Pelosi an average of 1.4 million pounds of greenhouse gases each year are now avoided by printing the massive Congressional Record on recycled sheets of paper, versus virgin paper. And massive is putting it mildly. Every single day that Congress is in session, 4,100 copies of the statements are printed out. Wowza!

As the writer of the article I’m sourcing so cleverly put it, “why in this digital age do we even have a PRINTED version of the Congressional Record?” He goes on to answer because Congress needs to keep (for posterity reasons) physical proof of what they say and what takes place on the floor. In other words, a digitized version would be open to hackers, alterations, etc.

Isn’t that possible with a PRINTED version as well? Well not the hacking part, but the alteration part. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before it goes strictly digital, as paper (i’m sure) will one day be a thing of the past.

Note there is an online version of the Congressional record, but it’s accompanied by the printed version as well.

via Fox News Congress Blog