Posted on 04/16/2012 12:47:17 PM PDT by Kaslin
For those who need proof that the Senate was a do-nothing chamber in 2011 beyond the constant partisan bickering and failure to pass a federal budget, there is now hard evidence that it was among the laziest in 20 years.
In her latest report, Secretary of the Senate Nancy Erickson revealed a slew of data that put the first session of the 112th Senate at the bottom of Senates since 1992 in legislative productivity, an especially damning finding considering that it wasnt an election year when congressional action is usually lower.
For example, while the Democratically-controlled Senate was in session for 170 days, it spent an average of just 6.5 hours in session on those days, the second lowest since 1992. Only 2008 logged a lower average of 5.4 hours a day, and thats when action was put off because several senators were running for president, among them Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain.
On the passage of public laws, arguably its most important job, the Senate notched just 90, the second lowest in 20 years, and it passed a total of 402 measures, also the second lowest. And as the president has been complaining about, the chamber confirmed a 20-year low of 19,815 judicial and other nominations.
The Secretary of the Senates office didnt comment on the statistics, but it did provide a comparison to action in 2009, the first term of the 111th Senate, when many of President Obamas initiatives were considered by the Democratically-controlled House and Senate. By comparison the number of Senate bills offered last year was down 30 percent, the number of amendments offered sank 55 percent, and the number of roll call votes dropped 40 percent.
” Isnt there some sort of historical/political connection between the line: this will not stand, and Viagra?”
LOL!
Hmmm ... how about this?
Public law: The Senate must spend the first year of each Congress doing nothing but writing repealers of extant, aged-out, overgrown, or just plain silly legislation from earlier Congresses.
How's that sound?
A better descriptor for them would be "most worthless Congress in history."
Concurring bump.
A former congressional aide once told a group of listeners (including me) always write in your own hand, longhand (manuscript or holographic document) on heavy bond. Staffers sometimes weigh incoming mail on a hot issue as a proxy for counting letters pro and con.
See why e-mail counts for ever so much less?
Oh, and never use company letterhead -- it signals that you had an underling write the letter, which detracts from its significance.
The only address you need is "Senator X of [State], THE CONGRESS, Washington, DC." The Post Office has never lost the Congress in over 200 years; your letter will get through, and jiffy-quick.
“Democrat-controlled Senate laziest in 20 years”
Why is that bad?
Well because we have to pay them
I t is cheaper to pay them than to pay for the follies they foist on us. Consider their salaries as protection money.
“On the passage of public laws, arguably its most important job, the Senate notched just 90”
That’s 90 too many.
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