We have all been there. You take a vacation and soon enough, that day arrives when you finally have to go back to work. Sometimes it seems like it might be a better idea to stay home another day. Maybe that's what happened in the U.S. House on Monday. The House had not held votes since February 4, as last week was a scheduled break week, and the week before that (the week of 2/8) was scrapped because of heavy snow in the Washington, D.C. area.
So with only two minor votes set for Monday evening (the naming of two post offices), almost one-quarter of the House didn't even make it back to town on time.
The first vote was 330-0, with 102 members missing the vote. The second was 331-0, with 101 lawmakers not voting.
You can see the breakdown of the second vote at http://bit.ly/9vkkvA .
(For those of you who know that the House has 435 members, right now there are two vacancies - and Speaker Pelosi normally does not vote by custom - so that's why 432 is the total number in the House on that vote breakdown.)
Now maybe there was a lot of bad weather, maybe a lot of planes had mechanical troubles, maybe it was just a travel day (or maybe it was 25-cent wing night down at the Hawk and Dove on Pennsylvania Avenue).
And then again, maybe a lot of lawmakers simply decided they didn't need to vote on the naming of two post offices.
To quote my wife, who used to work in the House of Representatives, "That's bad."
So, in the name of transparency, here is the list of all 101 House members who missed both votes on Monday. For the record, 60 were Democrats and 41 were Republicans:
Ackerman (D-NY)
Austria (R-OH)
Barrett (R-SC)
Barrow (D-GA)
Barton (R-TX)
Bean (D-IL)
Berry (D-AR)
Biggert (R-IL)
Boccieri (D-OH)
Bono Mack (R-CA)
Boren (D-OK)
Boucher (D-VA)
Braley (D-IA)
Calvert (R-CA)
Camp (R-MI)
Campbell (R-CA)
Carnahan (D-MO)
Childers (D-MS)
Cleaver (D-MO)
Conyers (D-MI)
Costello (D-IL)
Cuellar (D-TX)
Culberson (R-TX)
Davis (D-AL)
Deal (R-GA)
DeFazio (D-OR)
Delahunt (D-MA)
Dent (R-PA)
Dreier (R-CA)
Ehlers (R-MI)
Etheridge (D-NC)
Fallin (R-OK)
Filner (D-CA)
Fortenberry (R-TX)
Giffords (D-AZ)
Gingrey (R-GA)
Granger (R-TX)
Graves (R-KS)
Grijalva (D-AZ)
Gutierrez (D-IL)
Harman (D-CA)
Hastings (R-WA)
Higgins (D-NY)
Hodes (D-NH)
Hoekstra (R-MI)
Inglis (R-SC)
Johnson (R-IL)
Jordan (R-OH)
Kaptur (D-OH)
Kilpatrick (D-MI)
Kirk (R-IL)
Kissell (D-NC)
Larsen (D-WA)
Lipinski (D-IL)
Loebsack (D-IA)
Mack (R-FL)
Maffei (D-NY)
McCollum (D-MN)
McGovern (D-MA)
McIntyre (D-NC)
McNerney (D-CA)
Meek (D-FL)
Melancon (D-LA)
Miller (R-MI)
Miller (D-NC)
Moore (D-KS)
Moore (D-WI)
Moran (R-KS)
Moran (D-VA)
Murphy, Patrick (D-PA)
Neal (D-MA)
Neugebauer (R-TX)
Pascrell (D-NJ)
Platts (R-PA)
Poe (R-TX)
Pomeroy (D-ND)
Price (R-GA)
Radanovich (R-CA)
Reichert (R-WA)
Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Rush (D-IL)
Ryan (D-OH)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sanchez, Loretta (D-CA)
Scalise (R-LA)
Schrader (D-OR)
Sessions (R-TX)
Sherman (D-CA)
Shuster (D-PA)
Sires (D-NJ)
Smith (R-WA)
Stark (D-CA)
Sullivan (R-OK)
Teague (D-NM)
Thompson (D-MS)
Titus (D-NV)
Velázquez (D-NY)
Wamp (R-TN)
Westmoreland (R-GA)
Wilson (D-OH)
Young (R-AK)
We have all been there. You take a vacation and soon enough, that day arrives when you finally have to go back to work. Sometimes it seems like it might be a better idea to stay home another day. Maybe that's what happened in the U.S. House on Monday. The ...
About the Author