Incoming Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced yesterday that the Republicans’ three day workweek for Congress is over: starting January, the Democrat-led 110th Congress will be working five days a week.
As Hoyer explained (sub. req.), all that promised oversight will take time — time that somehow wasn’t available in the Do-Nothingest Congress:
“First, you could argue there was no time for oversight, or you could argue there was no oversight and therefore no necessity to meet. But in any event, we are going to meet sufficient times, so the committees can do their jobs.”
Some Republicans have a different take — congressional oversight destroys families:
“Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families — that’s what this says.”
Update: For those curious as to how Democrats will begin their busy reign, Hoyer says they’re sticking with their planned first 100 hour agenda (“implement proposals by the bipartisan committee that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, raise the federal minimum wage, reduce prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients, promote stem-cell research, lower the interest rate for student loans and repeal certain tax benefits for the oil industry”). Only after that will they address the numerous appropriations bills that Republicans will leave unfinished, in an effort to bog down the Democrats’ agenda.