One thing is clear about the House under Republican control: No one is going to die from overwork.
The incoming House Republican leader, Eric Cantor, has released the chamber’s calendar for 2011. It calls for the House to be in session for 123 days over 32 weeks. The number of weeks is a decrease of 11 percent over previous years. In 2007, for example, the House was in session for 152 days, and in 2009 for 148.
The calendar is blocked out with short workweeks of two to four days, intended to give members the maximum time off. There are only two five-day workweeks scheduled, one in July, the other in November.
Unlike the current Congress, which can’t seem to finish its work and leave town, Cantor plans for the House’s first session of the 112th Congress to quit for the year on Dec. 5. And there is the usual generous August recess.
After putting in a four-day week, the House will be gone from the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 5, to the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 7. Its busiest month will be March, when it is scheduled to be in session for 14 days.
Cantor has promised that there will be no votes after 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and on the 17 Fridays the House is in session, no votes after 3 p.m., the better to allow members to catch planes back to their districts.
Cantor says the shortened schedule will increase efficiency, create certainty for lawmakers, emphasize quality over quantity and leave ample time for meaningful oversight.
He says there will be no more congratulatory resolutions for individuals, groups and sports teams, which do indeed consume a lot of floor time. And he pledged that legislation would be available for review three days before a committee does its final draft and three days before floor consideration, a good rule if the lawmakers can stick to it.
While there is much talk about creating family time for members, the GOP leadership wants to protect its new majority by giving newly elected Republicans ample time to return to their districts and begin campaigning for re-election.
Maybe this leisurely schedule will work out for the Republicans, but the vagaries of the legislative process have a way of wrecking the best-laid plans.
But then, the current Congress, which never succeeded in passing a budget or any of the 12 mandatory spending bills, has set a low threshold for success.
After all, the poor GOP needs more time to take their carpetbags to lobbyists and other paymasters.
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