5 Day Work Week for the House?

    It seems that the House has gotten to used to the 2 or 3 day work week that they have grown accustomed to since Bushco came into being. They're starting to cry because Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, the Maryland Democrat who will become House majority leader, has told them that they should expect to work more hours when the Democrats take their positions in January. Darn Democrats!

    From WaPo :

"I have bad news for you," Hoyer told reporters. "Those trips you had planned in January, forget 'em. We will be working almost every day in January, starting with the 4th."

The reporters groaned. "I know, it's awful, isn't it?" Hoyer empathized.

For lawmakers, it is awful, compared with what they have come to expect. For much of this election year, the legislative week started late Tuesday and ended by Thursday afternoon -- and that was during the relatively few weeks the House wasn't in recess.     More HERE

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 Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), is complaining that the extra hours keeps them away from their families. Hey stupid, we are not paying you to work a 2 or 3 day week on our behalf! You are getting paid to be in Washington for 5 days per week and for however many hours per day that you need to be there to finish our business! You are not getting paid to go home to kiss up to the business interest that you might have!

    Get with the program or go the hell home and stay home! Wal-Mart might take you!

 

Lawmakers offer ethics rules for new Congress

By Andy Sullivan Tue Dec 5, 2006

...Democratic leaders, who made the Republican "culture of corruption" a central theme of their campaign to recapture Congress, have promised to make ethics reform their first order of business when they take control in January.

The measures outlined by Meehan and other reform advocates include an independent office to investigate ethics complaints against members of Congress. That proposal was stripped out of a Senate bill in March as critics said they were capable of policing themselves.

This year's scandals proved that the existing House and Senate ethics committees aren't up to the job, reformers said.

"No group is capable of self-policing," said Connecticut Republican Rep. Christopher Shays (news, bio, voting record).       From YahooNews

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    Ethics rules and laws have come before many administrations, both Democrat and Republican, only to get shot down or watered down to where they were of no use. Maybe with the 'New Breed' of Democrats coming into power in less than a month, things will change for once.

    We can only hope, right?