Wouldn't you like to be paid good money for a job that is already 'done' until November?

[n2doc]

By Philip Bump July 9 at 10:54 AM
With its August recess imminent and midterm elections following soon after, it's regularly assumed that Congress is done for the year. And, therefore, the 113th Congress, barring a legislative miracle, will soon officially be the least productive ever.

Depending on what you mean by "productive," that is. And if history is a guide, we're only about halfway through the legislation the 113th Congress will produce.

The Post spoke by phone with Josh Tauberer, a transparency advocate and "civic hacker" who created GovTrack, a site that aggregates data on Congress and its legislation. Tauberer didn't think there was much of a way that the 113th Congress could avoid seeing the lowest number of enacted laws in recent memory.

This is why. Using GovTrack's data, here's where the 113th (current) Congress stands in relation to every other Congress since 1973.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/09/the-113th-congress-is-historically-good-at-not-passing-bills/?tid=rssfeed

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/stick-fork-congress-its-done-until-midterms-n141481

[A Little Weird]

1. It never occurred to me until Boner brought it up

Maybe we could sue our congress critters for not doing their jobs. I guess we can't send them to jail for total incompetence but it is a nice fantasy.

[n2doc]

2. And for those who say "oh, they need to run their re-election campaigns"

2/3 of the senate isn't standing for re-election. Most of the house seats are in safe gerrymandered districts, and since most primaries are done with, there is little need to campaign. There is absolutely no need to shut down congress just so these folks can run around and campaign.