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 ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
"This schedule will last ... Oh, about five days ..."
No. It won't. Rep. Hoyer and Rep. Pelosi will brook no BS from their fellow Democrats. That's in marked contrast to the GOP opposition.
The Democrats intend to win in 2008, and Rep. Hoyer in particular knows that he has a little over a year to deliver results. Or else.
This doesn't make sense to me. If you adjust for time zone differences, he leaves at 6 am. It's a 6 hour flight, roughly, so that puts him in at noon sunday. Couldn't he get up at 9 am, and be here at 6 pm, more than enough time to get a good nights sleep and be to work monday morning?
Pelosi has lost every appointment battle and compromised every position she advocated already and she has not even been voted speaker.
Oh dear .... "No man is safe when Congress is in session."
All that hard work, laboring hours upon hours... dim dreams finally about to be realized... all to be stopped cold BY BUSH'S VETO STAMP!
LLS
It's the Potemkin congress LOL!
The media will play along.
I think they should propose that Congress, unless they go to a 5 day work week only receieve 3/5 of their salary.
We should put that on the national ballot.
That way they can vote themselves some bigger pay raises in a few months, and not feel bad about it.
The less they work the better.
I agree - it would kind of help them discover their priorities.
Only one way to change Washington. Term Limits.
Nothing more, nothing less. With term limits, everything will eventually work itself out.
Only one way to change Washington. Term Limits.
Nothing more, nothing less. With term limits, everything will eventually work itself out.
I will bet cash money that Hoyer has worked out a schedule where Rat Congressmen will be allowed to go home on a rotating schedule. Meanwhile, the Republicans, because they won't have the knowledge of when things are going to be brought up on the floor, will have to keep their members there all the time.
This will also allow democrat Congressmen to get home for PR purposes and get a head start on the next elections, while the Republicans will get challengers who say that "Republican Congressman Jones hasn't even come home to see his constituents since January!"
It is the duty of every Freeper to monitor where their congressmen are, particularly the democrats.
Personally, I'd be happier if the Congress were never in session. That minimizes their capacity for harm.
If they're there, they pass laws and we already have far too many laws.
We should give them all their full salaries on the very first day of session and then see how long they're there.
ping
And these days the media builds the Potemkin Village, the Dems just tell them what they want it to look like....
Found Newt's inaugural 1995 speech, may make for an interesting comparison to Nancy's.
http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/newtgingrichhousespeakerinaugural.htm
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