Following the lead of soon-to-be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's pledge to keep the House open for business in January, Harry Reid announced today that he will keep the Senate open for the first seven weeks of the year.
Reid also said he's doing away with the "do-nothing Congress" that Democrats campaigned against this year as they ousted the Republican majority in both chambers of Congress. The Nevada Democrat, who is wrapping up his final days as Senate minority leader, will take control of the Senate agenda when the new Congress takes the oath of office in January.
"We're going to put in some hours here that haven't been put in in a long time," Reid said. That means "being here more days in the week and we start off this year with seven weeks without a break. That hasn't been done in many, many years here." Read full article here
The Sunlight Foundation has an extensive report on the 109th Do-Nothing Congress and their paltry number of days in session. The report compares each session of Congress all the way back to 1947. And these people had the nerve to give themselves a pay-raise.
CBS did a poll before the elections that is very telling
A CBS News/New York Times poll finds 75 percent of voters can't name one thing Congress has accomplished.
So as this lame-duck do-nothing Republican Congress nears its end days we can only look forward to the start of cleaning up the huge mess they've left the country with.
Reid and Pelosi are now left with appropriation bills that the current Congress is giving up on.
Reid said he will tackle those priorities after cleaning up the "financial mess" that the outgoing Republican leadership has left. He was referring to nine long overdue appropriations bills covering 13 Cabinet departments for the budget year that began Oct. 1.
"They're just leaving town, it appears," Reid said from his office in the Capitol. "We hope that's not the case, but it appears that's what they are going to do. And so we're going to have to find a way to fund the government for the next year."
The must-pass legislation totals more than $460 billion and promises to divert time and energy from other items on the Democratic agenda.
Reid and Pelosi's turnaround of our pathetic Congress will only help to show the people that have been blinded by the corporate media and hate radio that the country needs Democrats running the Congress.
Give `em hell Harry!