November 23, 2004

Nice work if you can get it

How come the Administration wants to limit overtime pay, while its legislative buddies in the House only want to work two days a week?

While the House typically meets for 140 or more legislative days each year -- reaching a recent historical high of 167 days in 1995, the first year of the Newt Gingrich-led GOP majority -- it has met for legislative business just 97 days this year, with only five more days of work scheduled for the year. If no additional days are scheduled, the 102 days would be the lowest in decades. And bills are given little airing on the floor.

The resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq, for example, was debated just two days. The defense authorization bill, a complicated package that lays out the Pentagon's spending and program priorities for the following year, once commanded extended discussion in the House; in 1994, the last year Democrats held the majority, the measure was discussed for three weeks, and House members had several days to read the Rules Committee version before they began debating the measure. This year, the defense authorization bill was ushered through the House in two days, with members having just a few hours to examine the bill before the full House considered it.

According to the article (well worth reading; it's the first of a three-part series), the first votes the House makes in an ordinary week aren't taken until 6:00pm Tuesdays, and the members frequently finish by Thursday afternoon. How the hell is anyone supposed to understand complex legislation when it's not even available to see until Wednesday morning and must be voted on by Thursday afternoon? I speedread, but not when the material is the kind I need to take notes on.

Posted by Linkmeister at November 23, 2004 12:01 AM
Comments

As the saying goes....idle hands are the devil's playthings. It's not that they don't have enough to do to keep them out of mischief. Perhaps the mischief is more profitable for them.

Posted by: Kate at November 24, 2004 06:22 PM