A Day In Congress

Response to "Today in Congress" by David Waldman (May 20th, 2009)

When I first browsed the Congress Matters' article, a few items stood out to me. Initially, I was surprised to find that I was scrolling for some time before I reached the end of the page. Upon closer inspection, however, I realized that the site contains a detailed description of the various plans for the committees and subcommittees. In reality, the House had two votes to conduct, one for HR 2352 and one for a Senate amendment to HR 627. Then, I also noticed many of the topics we discussed in class today. For instance, the Senate had to file any amendments to HR 2346 by 1 pm because of Rule 22 that applies to votes when cloture occurs. This fact implies that a member (or members) of Congress tried to filibuster the bill. Clearly, this is an appropriate example of how the information we acquire during class applies to life situations.

One practice that struck me as odd during class was depicted in a recent action by the Senate. The House was voting on an amendment that the Senate added to the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act of 2009; amazingly, the amendment had absolutely nothing to do with credit cards at all. The amendment actually had to deal with the Second Amendment of the Constitution and the ability to carry guns in national parks. This is a clear-cut example of how people in Congress spend time dealing with "politics" rather than helping the country. Some of the Senators simply voted in favor of this proposal because they wanted to be perceived as pro-gun while they believed that the House would ultimately defeat the new amendment. This is similar to both the reading and the presentation in class; sometimes, unrelated items get attached to bills so that those measures will have a greater chance of being passed because people (particularly, the president) do not want to oppose the entire bill simply because of one detail. Personally, I have a problem with this practice because truly necessary legislation will likely be passed through Congress and the president on its own. What ever happened to discussion and persuasion? If someone can develop a well-reasoned, rational argument for a particular action, then people should be more open to pursuing that course of action. To me, the current procedure seems to be another example of how representatives look out for themselves and their constituents at the expense of the whole nation (sometimes). I feel that we need to figure out a way to take the "politics" out of politics. We need to put aside all of the twisted practices of politicians and recognize what is best for the nation. Perhaps, this is why the Founding Fathers tried to limit Congress to certain powers because they understood that most things would be better left up to the states.

With that being said, we unfortunately have to live with the fact that Congress has abused some of the clauses in the Constitution to deal with many different issues. Between the Constitutional powers and the interpretted powers, Congress has become a complex organization of a range of committees and subcommittees. The House Appropriations Committee considered 7 different topics from 10 am until after 2 pm. Although I do not know the exact members of each committee, I would imagine that representatives often have multiple meetings scheduled at the same time. This is more obvious with the Senate schedule because it was organized according to time. At two points during the day, four committees were meeting at one time. Even though Congress members do not spend a great deal of time role call voting each day, they remain extraordinarily busy with all of their responsibilities. I am not surprised that people are dissatisfied with Congress because our representatives are constantly occupied with various activities that slow down the legislative process (especially since every representative tries to benefit his/her constituents). Looking at this schedule has provided me with more reasons to believe that changes need to be made with regards to the operations of Congress.