Congressional Research Results in Lack of Sleep for Virginia Senator

Day 375, 22:16 • Published in USA USA • by Joshua Tree

In the course of researching certain proposals that are being made in the Congressional forums, I spent a chunk of time that I will NEVER get back : ( poring over the law proposal records of the last 30 days. These are the statistics I found (note that these statistics do not account for the fact that the president also has a vote. If that WERE accounted for, these statistics would be even more dismal):

1- We have had five proposals since the new Congress was elected (listed most recent to oldest):

What proposed by Yes No Attendance:
Tax change: Diamonds NoneSuch: 41 1 82.4%
Buy Construction: Hospital Benn Dover: 42 1 84.3%
Buy Construction: DS Benn Dover: 46 1 92.1%
New Citizen Fee fozamilian11: 6 39 88.2%
Minimum Wage ProggyProp: 12 36 94.1%

Although 80%+ attendance seemed fairly reasonable to me, I am somewhat clever, and being clever, I noticed the beginnings of a trend, where the attendance rate was slowly dropping. But, said I to my clever self, 5 law proposals is not a large enough sampling for conclusive evidence.

Very true, said my clever self back to me; this is why we should examine previous trends over a longer period of time. You are wise beyond your years, I said to my clever self, who was busy studying the records and compiling the following information:

2- The previous Congress had 39 members, from what Emerick has told me. In the first ten days the voting attendance was a VERY steady 71.8%. In fact, while most proposals had 27 votes, the average was 28.2, with the lowest attendance in that first ten days being 26. I would be willing to guess that it was the same 27 people, plus or minus 1 or 2. This means that approximately 10 elected officials weren't even bothering to show up in the first ten days of office, which was a surprising find... my clever self had not expected a full quarter of the senators to drop out in the first week.

3- In the next ten days (the middle 1/3 of the tenure, for those of you who are having a hard time following) the voting attendance dropped from an average 28.2 to 24.2, or 62%. During this period the highest attendance was 29 (once).

4- In the final ten days (do I really need to explain it?) the voting attendance dropped even more significantly (and became more inactive; there were only five proposals in the final ten days, listed here from newest to oldest)

What Proposed by Yes No Attendance
Tax change: Oil Joeph Cole: 18 4 56.4%
Buy Constructions: Hospita Benn Dover: 21 0 53.8%
Tax Change: Iron Justinious: 12 5 43.6%
Buy Constructions: Benn Dover: 20 0 51.3%
Tax Change: Hospital Uncle Sam: 11 11 56.4%

As my clever self pointed out to me, the last one listed here, the Hospital tax change proposal is significant because it underscores one of the points of this article: This proposal was REJECTED due to a tie vote, 11-11. Had the attendance been higher, this would have been less likely, imo. And even if it had been tied with a higher number of votes, it would have been largely due to the fact that the law was apparently not properly ran through the PPPP (see the attached link to the debate area for more details http://erepublikusa.com/forums/index.php?topic=535.0 )...

What is even more interesting is that, had the PPPP system been followed and enforced, the law would likely have been overwhelmingly passed the first time, judging from the fact that, as you can see from the thread of the above linked debate area, it was re-submitted in the PPPP and will likely be re-proposed with a majority Yes vote after all the wrinkles are hammered out. In other words, had Congress known what they were voting on and why, they probably wouldn't have voted against it 11 times.
What else has my clever self deduced from all this research?

A- That I have WAAAAAAAY too much f***ing time on my hands,

B- That based off past trends and the beginning trend line displayed in item 1 above, we are likely to have more senators fall off the wagon, and currently there is really nothing that keeps them accountable. You guys have no idea whether or not I show up to vote, except that I am (hyper)active in the forums. My constituents in Virginia have no idea if I’m doing anything, except if I let them know I am.

C- This is not a deduction so much as a theory, but there is a high probability that the reason we have a higher percentage this Congress than last already is that it happened to coincide with the holiday weekend, and most people, like me, have been sitting around on their asses snacking on leftover turkey. Which means that although we started with a higher percentage than last time, I predict that, unchecked, this Congress will experience a more rapid decline in attendance after this weekend is over.

D- A Speaker of the House position, if exercised properly and consistently, could bring some positive changes

E- It would be fantastic if there was an easy way to keep records of who is active, and even better, what direction they cast their vote in. I think that a senator’s constituents ought to know which way their Congressman is voting, and while Emerick has wisely decided to leave the congressional forum unrestricted for the benefit of John Q. ePublic, there is a significant lack of non-senatorial activity on the forums for whatever reason (there are also a lot of Senators who don’t show up on the forums too often, for that matter). How many citizens are actually doing their civic duty and researching what the Senate is doing? Wouldn’t it be nice if someone was compiling this stuff for the public eye?

F- It’s getting late and I’m pretty tired. I deduced this by the way I keep falling asleep at the keyboard.

In this article I present evidence, with a conclusion based off that evidence. I haven't done much in the way of proposing solutions, I'd like to encourage readers to do that. Use the comment section to make suggestions or present solutions.

Also, in reference to item E above, I'm debating whether it is worth my time to turn this newspaper into a sort of Congressional report card for the benefit of everyday citizens. If that is something you would like to see happen, comment accordingly and feel free to make suggestions as to what you would like to see in that report card.

Jtree
Virginia Senator
Pro-Pie