While checking out the website for the House of Representatives, I checked on their daily business and found that they were busy working on...


H.Conn Res.409: A bill that congratulated WWII votes and those on the homefront with the recent completion of the WWII veterans memorial in D.C.

H.J.Res.91: A bill recognizing the accomplishments of the 1944 Serviceman's Readjustment Act.

H.Res 577: Recognized the 50 year history between the E.U. and the United States.

H.Conn Res. 378: Called on the Vietnamese government to free an imprisoned priest(doesnt' offer punishment, so basically it's worthless)

H.Conn Res. 352: Recognized the accomplishments of Indian citizans who live in America

H.Res 613: Recognizing the tenth anniversary of Vietnam Human Rights Day

H.Res 622: Supported the goals of the Peace Officer's Memorial day

Two bills renamed banks

H.R.2523: Named a courthouse
House Office of the Clerk

Now don't get me wrong, I don't doubt more than one of these bills has a good purpose, a good "feeler" that makes everyone feel good to be for something. Companies and other institutions drown in the "there ought to be a law mentality" that reduces important work into minutia and pure drivel. Anyoen involved in committee meetings at their work should know what I'm talking about(and I've been in quite a few)


Questions for debate:

1.)Should the House concern itself with more pressing legislation and save the pablum for state governments that can issue statement after statement about this stuff?

2.)Given how much our elected representatives make, was this a day in which your representative voted on issues that you cared about?

This goes back to a point I made in another thread: put Congress on the clock and it'll help focus their minds on the important FEDERAL issues that need to be handled. If you leave them in D.C. too long, they begin forgetting what they're really there to do.

I spent a year as a legislative Fellow with a House committee -- I used to enjoy telling people on the metro that I worked for the House Textiles and Safety Subcommittee and that we were currently working on legislation to curb to proliferation of bellybutton lint. After a few times through the schtick, I had it down and could even say it with a straight face.

I don't know what was sicker-- that i could come up with something like this, or that people would believe it. That "hilarity" aside, the recitation of floor action in the House was incomplete. you neglected to mention:

• A bill that should make conservatives vote counters happy: A Bill expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Department of Defense should rectify deficiencies in the military postal system to ensure that members of the Armed Forces stationed overseas are able to receive and send mail in a timely manner as well as receive and send election ballots in time to be counted in the 2004 elections
• Mr. George Miller of CA notified the House of his intention to offer a motion to instruct conferees on “Making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other purposes”
• Introduction of S. Con. Res. 95: -An original concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2005 and including the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2006 through 2009.

All bills or actions important to the functioning of our Democracy... meanwhile, elsewhere in the House, a full day of hearings, mark-ups, and other events. http://www.house.gov/daily/comlist.html

The "plabum" you speak of does not get in the way of meaningful work being done, and in small symbolic ways it is important. So let it continue.

--Its easy to take cheap shots at our representatives; in many cases its deserved. But from my own experience staffing committees, recognize that most of them work hard, over many hours (our Chair was always there before me in the morning, and i would often see him on CSPANN on the floor at 9:00 at night while i was at home sipping a beer), are away from family and home and despite that fact that we may not agree with them, generally try and do the right thing.

Of course, I could be wrong

JACABO

Do you really want a Congress that does a lot? Be careful what you wish for.

"No man's life or property is safe while the legislature is in session." (attributed to Mark Twain, but I'm not so sure)