Posted by Congressman John Campbell at 12:00 am on Nov 05, 2007 Comments Off on The Least Productive Congress Ever?
In the real world (that means outside of Washington, DC),
productivity is measured by comparing the output received to the
effort/cost expending to produce something or perform a task. Or,
as the dictionary describes it, "rate of output per unit of
input."
So far, the House of Representatives this year has taken over 1,000
separate votes, which has surpassed the most recorded votes ever in
the history of Congress. We also have been "in session" voting for
146 days so far, which is also headed to a record number of days in
Washington, DC. So, that’s the input.
But what about the output? So far, only 107 bills have been signed
into law. Over half of these were either naming something (like a
post office) or extending an existing law that was scheduled to
expire. Several more were simple land transfers from government to
government. National Review has suggested that there has been only
one piece of legislation of any significance that has passed and
been signed into law which was the increase in the minimum wage.
This Congress is on track to pass the fewest bills since electronic
records have been kept. Furthermore, Congress has… Read More