figure 3. postal and e-mail communications to capitol hill: 1995-2004

Since the Internet was introduced to Capitol Hill in 1995, total communications received by Congress have increased significantly. As this chart shows, total postal mail and e-mail to Capitol Hill have increased from approximately 50 million in 1995 to 200 million in 2004, nearly a 300% increase. These data represent all incoming e-mail and postal communications to the House and Senate, not only communications from constituents to their elected representatives. However, most offices have experienced comparable growth in constituent communications.

(House e-mail and postal mail data provided by the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives. Senate e-mail data provided by the Senate Sergeant at Arms. Senate postal mail data provided by the Office of the Senate Postmaster. These volumes do not include faxes or phone calls, which cannot be measured in aggregate. E-mail data prior to 1998 in the House and 1999 in the Senate was not available and is only an estimate.)