112th Congress is one of the least productive in years

Los Angeles Times ^ | 7/4/11 | Kathleen Hennessey

[NormsRevenge]

Reporting from Washington — Freshman Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte is often asked what surprises her most about serving in the esteemed upper chamber of Congress. The earnest, 43-year-old conservative from New Hampshire has come up with an uncomplicated reply:

"I thought that we would vote on a lot more bills."

She most recently offered this answer from her Senate office at 3:45 on a Thursday afternoon. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had just announced that the Senate was done voting for the week. Senators wouldn't be needed until the following Tuesday.

In the lobby outside Ayotte's office, a television tuned to C-SPAN was showing an empty Senate chamber. In offices up and down the hallway, aides were booking flights home.

So it goes these days on Capitol Hill, a place of many headlines and much drama but not a whole lot of legislating.

The 112th Congress is on pace to be one of the least productive in recent memory — as measured by votes taken, bills made into laws, nominees approved. By most of those metrics, this crowd is underperforming even the "do-nothing Congress" of 1948, as Harry Truman dubbed it. The hot-temper era of Clinton impeachment in the 1990s saw more bills become law.

There is no shortage of explanations for the apparent lack of legislative success. Political observers see hyperpartisanship and perpetual campaigning that makes once-routine steps politically perilous.

Experts cite the rise of a brand of conservatism that aims for a government that governs least. Historians note that it's not unusual for Congress to take a breather after a period of hyperactivity like the one Washington completed last year.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I would have been ecstatic if her "uncomplicated reply" had been "I thought that we would vote on repealed a lot more bills." This country does not need "more bills." It needs far less intrusion into private affairs, ergo, fewer laws.

[goat granny]

any year the congress doesn’t do much is a good thing for the citizens....making laws is how they keep their jobs..most laws we don’t want or need...

[jmaroneps37]

“112th Congress is one of the least productive in years”
I’ll take that! Better nothing than the damage the previous two did.

[WOBBLY BOB]

To be “productive” one must produce something.(other than steaming heaps of BS.)

[WOBBLY BOB]

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2491326/posts

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2539377/posts

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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2744241/posts