Still the Least Productive Congress in My Book

Posted on by vlrock

002GovTrack is currently tagging the 113th Congress as being in 2nd Place for the least productive Congress ever.  (List of 203 enacted laws; List of 94 bills at the President’s desk)

But, in my book, they’re in 1st Place, especially if you’re using the “number of bills passed and signed by the President.”  Take a look at what I mean.  Look closely at the bulk of what they actually managed to pass and get signed on the 16th of December 2014:

  • H.R. 43: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 14 Red River Avenue North in Cold Spring, Minnesota, as the “Officer Tommy Decker Memorial Post Office.”
  • H.R. 78: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 4110 Almeda Road in Houston, Texas, as the “George Thomas ‘Mickey’ Leland Post Office Building.”
  • H.R. 451: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 500 North Brevard Avenue in Cocoa Beach, Florida, as the “Richard K. Salick Post Office.”
  • H.R. 1391: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 25 South Oak Street in London, Ohio, as the “London Fallen Veterans Memorial Post Office.”
  • H.R. 1707: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 302 East Green Street in Champaign, Illinois, as the “James R. Burgess Jr. Post Office Building.”
  • H.R. 2112: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 787 State Route 17M in Monroe, New York, as the “National Clandestine Service of the Central Intelligence Agency NCS Officer Gregg David Wenzel Memorial Post Office.”
  • H.R. 2223: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 220 Elm Avenue in Munising, Michigan, as the “Elizabeth L. Kinnunen Post Office Building.”
  • H.R. 2678: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 10360 Southwest 186th Street in Miami, Florida, as the “Larcenia J. Bullard Post Office Building.”
  • S. 1434: A bill to designate the Junction City Community-Based Outpatient Clinic located at 715 Southwind Drive, Junction City, Kansas, as the Lieutenant General Richard J. Seitz Community-Based Outpatient Clinic.
  • H.R. 3085: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 3349 West 111th Street in Chicago, Illinois, as the “Captain Herbert Johnson Memorial Post Office Building.”
  • H.R. 3375: To designate the community-based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs to be constructed at 3141 Centennial Boulevard, Colorado Springs, Colorado, as the “PFC Floyd K. Lindstrom Department of Veterans Affairs Clinic.”
  • H.R. 3534: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 113 West Michigan Avenue in Jackson, Michigan, as the “Officer James Bonneau Memorial Post Office.”
  • H.R. 3682: To designate the community based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs located at 1961 Premier Drive in Mankato, Minnesota, as the “Lyle C. Pearson Community Based Outpatient Clinic.”
  • H.R. 3957: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 218-10 Merrick Boulevard in Springfield Gardens, New York, as the “Cynthia Jenkins Post Office Building.”
  • H.R. 4189: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 4000 Leap Road in Hilliard, Ohio, as the “Master Sergeant Shawn T. Hannon, Master Sergeant Jeffrey J. Rieck and Veterans Memorial Post Office Building.”
  • H.R. 4443: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 90 Vermilyea Avenue, in New York, New York, as the “Corporal Juan Mariel Alcantara Post Office Building.”
  • H.R. 4919: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 715 Shawan Falls Drive in Dublin, Ohio, as the “Lance Corporal Wesley G. Davids and Captain Nicholas J. Rozanski Memorial Post Office.”
  • H.R. 4939: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2551 Galena Avenue in Simi Valley, California, as the “Neil Havens Post Office.”
  • H.R. 5030: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 13500 SW 250 Street in Princeton, Florida, as the “Corporal Christian A. Guzman Rivera Post Office Building.”
  • H.R. 5106: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 100 Admiral Callaghan Lane in Vallejo, California, as the “Philmore Graham Post Office Building.”
  • S. 2921: A bill to designate the community based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs located at 310 Home Boulevard in Galesburg, Illinois, as the “Lane A. Evans VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic.”
  • H.R. 83: To require the Secretary of the Interior to assemble a team of technical, policy, and financial experts to address the energy needs of the insular areas of the United States and the Freely Associated States through the development of energy action plans aimed at promoting access to affordable, reliable energy, including increasing use of indigenous clean-energy resources.
  • H.R. 2203: To provide for the award of a gold medal on behalf of Congress to Jack Nicklaus, in recognition of his service to the Nation in promoting excellence, good sportsmanship, and philanthropy.
  • H.R. 2366: World War I American Veterans Centennial Commemorative Coin Act
  • H.J.Res. 105: Conferring honorary citizenship of the United States on Bernardo de Galvez y Madrid, Viscount of Galveston and Count of Galvez.
  • H.R. 4812: Honor Flight Act — Directs the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to establish a process for providing expedited and dignified passenger screening services for veterans traveling on an Honor Flight Network private charter, or another not-for-profit organization that honors veterans, to visit war memorials built and dedicated to honor their service.
  • H.R. 5108: To establish the Law School Clinic Certification Program of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and for other purposes.
  • H.R. 5462: To amend title 49, United States Code, to provide for limitations on the fees charged to passengers of air carriers.
  • H.R. 5681: To provide for the approval of the Amendment to the Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for Cooperation on the Uses of Atomic Energy
  • S. 2917: Adding Ebola to the FDA Priority Review Voucher Program Act
  • H.R. 4924: Bill Williams River Water Rights Settlement Act of 2014 – Authorizes, ratifies, and confirms the Big Sandy River-Planet Ranch Water Rights Settlement Agreement between the Hualapai Tribe, the Department of of the Interior, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, the Arizona Department of Water Resources, and the Freeport Minerals Corporation.

Okay, let me see if I got that right:  21 bills to name/rename buildings, 1 bill to create a team, 1 to confer honorary citizenship on a Count from Spain, 1 to set up expedited screenings for old white veterans to take a flight to see war memorials, 1 to give Jack Nicklaus a gold medal, 1 to tell the Treasury to mint a new silver coin, 1 to set up a law school certificate program on patents and trademarks, 1 to limit fees that airlines can charge passengers (hmmm are they getting overcharged in their travels), 1 that amends an Atomic Energy agreements between nations, 1 that ratifies a settlement agreement, and 1 that expedites drug trials for ebola treatment.  So, of the 31 bills signed, if you discount all the names/renames and the fluff stuff, all that remains are three significant bills (HR5681, S2917 and HR4924) or maybe 4 if you count HR5462 which probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day if it hadn’t impacted one or more of them.  Anything other than those three is just crap and a waste of taxpayer monies used only to pump up their numbers to look like they accomplished something more than they actually did.