Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, flanked by fellow House leaders Rahm Emanuel and Nancy Pelosi, says Democrats are trying to repair the image of Congress.
Posted on 12/05/2006 10:47:03 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
Forget the minimum wage. Or outsourcing jobs overseas. The labor issue most on the minds of members of Congress yesterday was their own: They will have to work five days a week starting in January.
The horror.
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, the Maryland Democrat who will become House majority leader and is writing the schedule for the next Congress, said members should expect longer hours than the brief week they have grown accustomed to.
"I have bad news for you," Hoyer told reporters. "Those trips you had planned in January, forget 'em. We will be working almost every day in January, starting with the 4th."
The reporters groaned. "I know, it's awful, isn't it?" Hoyer empathized.
For lawmakers, it is awful, compared with what they have come to expect. For much of this election year, the legislative week started late Tuesday and ended by Thursday afternoon -- and that was during the relatively few weeks the House wasn't in recess.
Next year, members of the House will be expected in the Capitol for votes each week by 6:30 p.m. Monday and will finish their business about 2 p.m. Friday, Hoyer said.
With the new calendar, the Democrats are trying to project a businesslike image when they take control of Congress in January. House and Senate Democratic leaders have announced an ambitious agenda for their first 100 hours and say they are adamant about scoring legislative victories they can trumpet in the 2008 campaigns.
Hoyer and other Democratic leaders say they are trying to repair the image of Congress, which was so anemic this year it could not meet a basic duty: to approve spending bills that fund government. By the time the gavel comes down on the 109th Congress on Friday, members will have worked a total of 103 days.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, flanked by fellow House leaders Rahm Emanuel and Nancy Pelosi, says Democrats are trying to repair the image of Congress.
This schedule will last ... Oh, about five days ...
At least one guy gets it.
We'll see if they stick with it. But give the Rats, or at least Hoyer, credit for seriousness. It's bunk that congressmen need to spend huge amounts of time in their districts. They have a very serious job, and that job is on Capitol Hill. The Tuesday through Thursday schedule is both a dereliction of duty to the public and a dereliction of duty to the party. It's part of the set of behaviors that cost us control of Congress in this election.
Yeah but being a legislator is not meant to be a full-time job. In the view of the founding fathers.
Yes, he makes a good point.
Exactly. The less time they spend in DC, the better.
Won't be long before Democrats figure out a way to choke the economy.
God help us....!
I wish that pile 'o scum would stay home all year long.
There is no way to assert the proper role of Congress (let alone the proper role of the Republican party) against the permanent Democratic bureaucracy without working a serious, full-time schedule. Part-timers can't accomplish that much under the circumstances. This is one of those situations in which the Framers' wisdom, which was almost always sound in its day, truly doesn't apply anymore. Romantic notions of citizen government are self-defeating at this point.
Yes, if it's Rats. But it takes an enormous amount of time just to do the bare minimum to keep the government going. If there is to be time left over for serious conservative legislating, the next Republican House and/or Senate will need to work 5 days a week, with fewer or shorter recesses.
Democrat notions of government will be worse.
I see, they wish to do the maximum amount of damage in the shortest amount of time.
yes, they needed to be home to run their slave plantations......
times change.
I wish our guys had realized how serious their jobs really were. But they'll have more time for golf outings now that dems are in charge and passing BS crazy legislation 5 days a week.
I have such mixed emotions about this announcement. First, I think the less time they are in session, the less damage they can do. However, part of me wants them to have to earn their salary. Hopefully the time spent will be arguing. If not, maybe (a big hope) Bush will veto all their bad legislation. It should be interesting.
Fixing the 'anemic image' should be easy, though.
....for those who created it.
"I see, they wish to do the maximum amount of damage in the shortest amount of time."
They know they have only two years before they get tossed - busy hands will prove to be the Devil's workshop in this case.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.