It Is Time to Reform Congress

When the first Congress of the United States was elected and convened, it was comprised entirely of average working citizens. Granted many, especially in the Senate, were among the wealthier land owners, but still the vast majority was citizens who saw the position as a part time job. Compensation for their service was trivial and they viewed it as an honor to serve the public good. As the years have rolled by, members of Congress in both the House and Senate found more and more ways to reward themselves and fewer and fewer went home to their main occupations. Today, we have a Congress of career politicians who now see advancement through seniority and have created all manner of personal perks that the founders could never have imagined. All of this career building has been done under the banner of the growing complexity of a government that must deal with international and domestic issues daily. One might think that is true, but is it?

If we look around the country, nearly all of the state governments have part time legislatures. The elected state legislators work only part time for 3 or 4 months out of the year, yet they can handle state business, often while still endlessly debating seeming silly legislation. In one of our largest and most populist states, Texas, legislators meet no more than 140 days only every other year. Now that clearly does not equate to the federal government which covers all national and international issues, but it causes people to wonder what Congressmen are doing.

In the 60s and 70s, the House met on an average of 162 days. In the 80s and 90s it went down to 139 days. In 1948, that session of Congress which was labeled the “Do Nothing Congress”, met for a total of 248 days. The second session of the 109th Congress may prove to be the laziest and worst Congress in our nation’s history by meeting only 218 days in the House and Senate combined. The current estimate is that the House in 2009 will have met no more than 93 days. That is less time than the state legislators, yet they are collecting their paychecks for only 3 months of work, not to mention having chauffeured luxury limos, private jets to take them on junkets, free meals, full pensions, health benefits better than most in the public, and various other Congressional perks. To be fair, Congressmen do spend more time on official business than just attending the floor sessions, but how much real time. Yes, there are committee meetings, but how often are they held and for how long? There is some preparation, but how much? Obama claimed to head a committee that never held a single meeting. Yes, there official functions, but what kind, how much business is really conducted, and for how long? When these are pursued in detail, we usually find that real working time is very small and social gathering is huge. Some Congressmen seem to be professional party goers.

Like all government reform, its genesis will not come from within Congress. There is simply no incentive. It will only be when the American public finally cries enough and demands that candidates running for election will support change. There are probably way too many other issues to divert the public’s attention now, but eventually these abuses of the public’s money and trust must be corrected. The time is growing very near.

More on Congressional abuse in a coming article. Stayed tuned.