Guess who wins???

It would be interesting for a reporter to tail a Republican Congresscritter when the House isn't in session just to see..........for the heck of it.

....shaking them down for campaign contributions, then plotting their next coup.

cable news catapulting the propaganda.

Yes, the House has been in session just 23 days during the first two months of 2013. Horrors!! Until you stop and check and find out that's pretty much the average for the first two months over the past four years (in 2011 and 2012 when the repubs controlled the House, there were 22 and 28 days in session the first two months of the year and in 2009 and 2010 when the Democrats controlled the House, there were 27 and 20 days in session the first two months of the year).

but past ones did operate much differently. One of MN freshman Congressman is a man who served in the late 1970's and he says it is night and day the difference. In the 1970's way more days were spent doing our work and way more hours of the day were spent doing our work, and not raising money etc.

Comparisons are tricky. Without question there is more time spent on fundraising etc. than in the past. But the number of days that Congress is in session (which seems to be the measure that gets thrown around to show how little work recent Congresses have done) is somewhat misleading.

For example, from 1976 through 1979, the average number of days the House was in session in the first two months of the year was 23.4 (high of 26 in 1975 and 1978, low of 19 in 1979). The total number of days in session for the year also fluctuated widely in the past. In 1975 it was 173. In 1976 it was 139. This pattern continued into the 1980s as well.

The biggest difference is that in the 70s and 80s it was not uncommon for Congress to finish its work and quit for the year before Thanksgiving. Indeed, in 1976, the last day Congress was in session was October 1 and in 1978 the last day was October 15. In 1984, Congress adjourned on October 12. In recent years, its become almost the norm for Congress to stay in session up to, if not past, Christmas. For example, even the rather thin schedule for the 113rd Congress has the House in session for two weeks in late November and another two weeks in early December.

The issue isn't the number of days that Congress is in session, its Congress' inability to compromise and reach agreements and/or the inability of the Senate to get bills over to the House. House staffers are forever complaining about the failure of the Senate to move legislation.

The following page provides links to data on the number of legislative days the House and Senate have been in session each year going back to 1975. Some of the totals for some of the years don't match up to the number of days identified as being in session. Not sure why that is.

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/ds/index.html#senate