The House of Painful Votes
I've been doing some digging into U.S. House roll call votes lately and I came up with a somewhat surprising factoid. The House has voted 923 times during this current session as of last Thursday. That's the most votes cast in a single session in the last 60 years. I only have data going back to 1947, so it's conceivable that the record extends even further back, perhaps all the way to the founding of our country. Especially since the trend is clearly towards more votes per session.
So does more votes mean more legislative mischief that leads to more anti-growth legislation? Depends. As we already know, there were 50 roll call votes this year to remove wasteful pork from spending bills. Those were good, solid votes and just 21 fewer votes than were taken in the entire 1953 session.
Of the 923 votes this year, 364 of them were amendments to various bills. Members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), considered the most pro-growth members of the House, offered 237 of them, or 65%. That's encouraging.
But check these statistics out:
Ninety-one (91) resolutions were voted on under suspension of the rules. "Under suspension" means they aren't amendable and debate is very limited. Usually these resolutions "express", "recognize" or "support" something. The House also likes to "observe" this or that and "call" on people or governments to do things. Here are some examples of how lawmakers spend their time in office:
- Vote 138: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that a day should be established as Dutch-American Friendship Day to celebrate the historic ties of the United States and the Netherlands.
- Vote 501: Recognizing over 200 years of sovereignty of the Principality of Liechtenstein, and expressing support for efforts by the United States to continue to strengthen its relationship with that country
- Vote 215: Supporting the goals and ideals of World Water Day
- Vote 111: Observing American Heart Month
- Vote 850: Calling on the Government of the Peoples Republic of China to remove barriers to United States financial services firms doing business in China
Also under suspension were 105 regular bills. Again, limited debate and not amendable. Here are some of the more bizarre ones (with their estimated cost to taxpayers in parentheses):
- Vote 78: Methamphetamine Remediation Research Act ($6 million)
- Vote 173: Hawaiian Homeownership Opportunity Act ($63 million)
- Vote 348: COPS Improvement Act ($3.66 billion)
- Vote 412: Chiropractic Care Available to All Veterans Act ($77 million)
- Vote 413: Traumatic Brain Injury Health Enhancement and Long-Term Support Act ($140 million)
There was also a masterfully clever vote that would include language in a bill "that would prohibit Small Business Administration assistance to anyone who pleads no contest or is convicted of a felony." The motion actually failed, meaning that lawmakers like giving out free tax dollars to criminals.
Of course, there is a silver lining to all of this. Pro-growth members of the House have signed a letter to President Bush stating that they will sustain any vetoes that he might issue on spending bills. The House GOP has also started a discharge petition drive to force a vote on stronger earmark reform rules. And despite the passage of the tax-hiking, government-expanding S-CHIP proposal, there were enough NO votes to sustain Bush's expected veto.
Posted at Andrew Roth at 11:40 AM | TrackBack
