What Has Congress Done?

Kerby Anderson, Point of View: While Congress is in recess, it might be good to catalog what it has done. A recent article in Time magazine set forth the disappointing results. They found that Congress did pass 260 laws, but they also pointed out that this is a thirty-year low. It is even more discouraging when you realize that approximately thirty percent of those laws were responsible for the naming of 74 post offices. Oh, and I might mention that Congress did designate July as National Watermelon Month.

It shouldn’t surprise you to find out that only 9 percent of Americans, in a recent Rasmussen poll, thought that lawmakers were doing a good or excellent job. When the congressional approval rating is in single digits, you would think members of Congress might be in trouble. But the saving grace is the ignorance of the American people. The article was titled, “Throw the Bums Out.” But it appears that a large percentage of the voters don’t know who those bums might be. The same poll found that 40 percent of voters think that Republicans are still in charge of Congress.

If you think about it, maybe a do-nothing Congress isn’t all that bad. After all, sometimes when Congress passes laws, they do more harm than good. Congress doesn’t necessarily have a responsibility to pass laws. But the Constitution does say that Congress (and particularly the U.S. Senate) does have a responsibility to confirm judicial appointments. And senators in the 110th Congress have not been doing their job.

The Committee for Justice created a list of U.S. Senate low points when it comes to the issue of judicial confirmations. They say that there has been a complete shutdown of the judicial process unmatched since 1848. They list the attacks on certain nominees and an unwillingness to even have an up-or-down vote on other nominees. In fact, many senators seem to be playing a game of “running out the clock.”

All in all, the current Congress does deserve a failing grade. They have done little to address critical issues in society (such as oil prices and health care), and they have failed to even vote on judicial nominees that are needed in our federal courts. Voters need to remember all of this in November. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.

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