By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has put together a schedule for the new House that seeks to eliminate the chaos of late-night votes, unread bills – and too many missed family moments.
Writing for National Review Online, Kathryn Jean Lopez reports that 76 of the 87 new Republican members of Congress have a total of 233 children between them, with most of them under the age of 18. This has prompted Rep. Cantor to put more certainty into the Congressional calendar so that precious family time is not disrupted by inefficient governing.
“Poor time management is a symptom of a bloated, inefficient, hyperactive federal government,” says Gary Andres, vice chairman of Dutko Worldwide, who served in the first Bush White House.
“The incoming majority’s reforms grasp this reality and send an important signal. Success isn’t measured by working overtime to pass new laws and expand the federal Leviathan.”
Cantor is planning to shorten the number of weeks in the session’s calendar, from 36 to 32 in order to relieve some of the travel pressure on lawmakers. However, the work week will be extended from three days to four in order to get more done in less time.
“Shortening the number of weeks in the session calendar is a good idea that will lessen travel pressure for members,” said Chuck Donovan, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “The new calendar should permit more family-oriented members not to uproot their wives and children, because of the assurance of a week home per month.”
If this helps members focus on and resolve legislation more efficiently, which means passage of budget and appropriation bills on time, “disasters like weekend sessions and lame-duck work might be avoided,” he said.
“This regularized schedule — on paper, as predictable as one can make it — is about more than averting family disasters,” Lopez writes. “It’s about focus. It’s about due diligence.”
As one leadership aide told her: “This structure also makes more time for committees to get their work done — instead of being interrupted by floor votes and other competing priorities — which means more time for proper oversight and legislating.”
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, is encouraged by the move: “As one who served in office and had to balance all the competing demands of family, having some certainty in schedule would have been a big help,” he told Lopez.
“This is important, not just for them personally, but for the conservative movement. If we look at how and why the Republicans lost the majority in ’06, it was a combination of losing their way on spending and a lack of personal accountability. These changes are vital to keep the conservative majority.”
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