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Monday, October 02, 2006
Congress: Doing Bad Things Badly
The House adjourned on Saturday, setting a record for the fewest days in session since the "do-nothing" Congress of 1948. The total for the entire year will most likely fall far below 100 days, depending on how long they stay during the November lame-duck session.
(For perspective, Congress has spent an average of 152 days in session since 1985).
Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann have that story and more on this Congress's procedural improprieties.
This part-time Congress has other parallels to the famous "Do-Nothing 80th Congress" that Harry Truman ran against successfully in 1948. The output of the 109th is pathetic measured against its predecessors and considering its priorities, which included a comprehensive immigration bill, tax reform and the research and development tax credit, lobbying and ethics reform, healthcare costs and insurance coverage, trade agreements, procedures for the detention and trial of suspected terrorists, and regulations for the oversight of domestic wiretaps, among many others. With just days to go before Congress adjourns and the fiscal year begins, not a single one of the 11 appropriations bills that make up the range of government programs has been enacted into law.
Posted by Matt Lewis
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