A coalition of more than 100 nonprofits is protesting a new filter used by some congressional offices to block spam, arguing it also inhibits constituent communications. The filter, or "logic puzzle" as it is called, requires senders to answer a question before a message is sent, making it more difficult for online advocacy campaigns that use forms.

A group of 105 organizations, spanning the ideological spectrum, have sent a letter to House and Senate congressional offices asking them to disable the so-called "logic puzzle", designed to stop email spam from reaching congressional email inboxes. The organizations, led by Consumers Union, National Taxpayers Union, and Earthjustice, argue that constituents should not be required to show a basic knowledge of math or English to express their concerns to their elected members of Congress.

"Congressional attempts to differentiate among constituent communications - accepting only unorganized communications but blocking communications where individuals are working together to deliver a strong message - raise dangerous questions about the infringement of constituents' First Amendment rights and are a disservice to constituents," according to the sign-on letter to Congress.

According congressional offices, the purpose of the program is to cut down on the amount of mass emails the offices receive daily. House offices currently can use Congress's 'Write Your Rep' service. In May the 'Write Your Rep' system added a filter to email communications, which typically involve a simple math problem. Under the new system, after a sender has already proven that he or she is a constituent of the member by providing his or her name and address, the sender is presented with a logic puzzle in order to prove the message is sent by a real person and not an email-generating program. House Administration Committee Spokesman Jon Brandt told Roll Call that 60 House offices use the logic puzzle, although one has discontinued its use. He also said "the committee is open to meeting with these groups to listen to their concerns..."

Rep. John Larson's (D-CT) office, which began using the logic puzzle last week, recently stated, "We were getting incredible amounts of email and a lot of it was from mass e-mails from some organization using technology to mask a grassroots campaign and it impaired our ability to communicate with constituents." On the decision to use the logic puzzle, Larson's spokesperson said, "It was a tough decision, because we obviously want to hear from our constituents. But we're limited in the amount of time and staff we have to answer some of these. I think Congress had to address this on a larger level."

The logic puzzle, which is also used by four Senate offices, is a response to a Congressional Management Foundation report that showed half of congressional staff surveyed believes identical e-mails are not sent with constituents' consent. The CMF study also showed that with the advent of the Internet and electronic communications, Congress received four times more communications in 2004 than in 1995. In 2004 the average office received over 200 million letters.

Many of the vendors that nonprofits use to organize their online grassroots communications have already deployed a "work around" for the logic puzzle. According to the vendors, no email communications from constituents have been lost. At issue for the vendors is the fear that the initiation of the logic puzzle has begun a technology "arms race" with the House and Senate Information Resources Departments.

Since the anthrax attacks of 2001, regular mail to Congress goes through lengthy inspections before delivery, leaving email and fax as the most practical methods of reaching lawmakers. The coalition of nonprofits sees requiring constituents to answer any sort of question, regardless how simple, as another barrier to communicating with a Congress that is already difficult to reach.

An American Civil Liberties Union statement on the logic puzzle explained, "Congress long ago did away with the literacy test qualification to vote. Apparently, Members of Congress acknowledge you shouldn't have to pass a test to vote for them, but they don't want you to contact them without taking a quiz".