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 ...
BS .. this is an attempt to pass their agenda .. if our side has other plans and aren't there to vote down stupid laws .. the Dems win
Plus it cuts into fund raising and campaign time for reelections and candidates
When the Republicans come back into power, can we stop pandering to the laziness of the fat old men of the Republican Party and put in the young go-getters?
Nice screen name
Look more closely. If they really will work 5 days per week, then what will they be doing? Really, how much time does it take to cast votes? What will happen is that either the CSpan speeches will be even more endless, or...
...or Mondays and Fridays will be full of investigative hearings.
Good point. Look for the pay raise in the first 100 hours. If Dem governors have taught me anything, put tax hikes and pay raises as early in the term as possible.
Exactly, Mo1! This isn't about being businesslike. It's all about controlling the agenda, keeping the Republicans off balance and unable to campaign, and PR for the masses.
A lot of people who "miss" Reagan don't remember Reagan. It wasn't all sunshine and puppies in the 80s. We remember the best of times.
What the GOP needs is a plan for when that happens, in order to pounce when they have the votes for anything. There are a lot of Republican proposals which would pass the full House if brought for a vote. Pick one and plan to ram it through if possible. Disband committees. Act on ethics charges. Whatever it takes. All it would take is one headline "House in Disarray" to end the whole enterprise.
I'm with those who tend to believe that the less they do, the better off we are.
Bingo, they've got two years to totally destroy this country...so they need to put in a few extra hours a week to get it done.
Yep .. and our side best get their act together and learn to play hardball or they will not regain control back for a very long time
They don't have to get in the gutter with the Dems .. but they need to learn street politics .. learn how to debate better and know how to work around the Dems games
I agree with that .. but that's not what the Dems plan on doing
Nope, it isn't. Be afraid.
With congress working five days a week, I expect lots of this -
"...He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance..."
I'm sure that he is, even as I write, drafting a bill to make the three-day work week standard for Americans generally, lest the nation's families suffer. [/SARCASM]
What a pathetic whiner!
Well, then, that's another reason we need term limits -- it replenishes the supply of fresh reformers.
I'm starting to think we need to find old news articles from back in the 80's to show some how it really was back then
how about we reform the congress New Hampshire style...you can work as much or as little as you like for your extravagant salary of $100 a year. i think this is more what The Founding Fathers had in mind!
Republicans should have said this is a good idea, and then on Fridays they should start listing all of the democrats who are OUT OF TOWN, right there on the House floor.
Americans can't stand whiners, because they think they are weak. Democrats are playing smart here, and I can see that the Republicans aren't.
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