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It's Not Just Our Money They Waste in Congress



Sure, Congress continually supports and adds new wasteful spending programs that benefit re-election campaigns and lobbyist groups but have no value for taxpayers footing the bill.

Now a new angle on the ludicrous waste in Congress... time... paid time.

In normal United States of America, when we see something done right we commend the action, write a note, or place a phone call.

In the alternate reality where members of Congress reside, things are not so logical. One cannot simply believe that something is admirable. He must take a vote and form a consensus in order to have such an opinion. No action need result from these votes... The purpose is simply to determine that something can be agreed upon as admirable.

Below is a listing of the 'alternate reality' March 2009 votes from the US House of Representatives without which our Country surely would not have survived.

Your estimated average base salary cost per item is $142,900 (before administrative/recording costs).


Roll Call # Date - March Issue Title/Description Contributer Comments - Add yours
93 3 H RES 77 Congratulating the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg Virginia for more than 100 years of service and leadership to the United States Bet they would have prefered the $142,900 donation!
96 4 H RES 45 Raising awareness and promoting education on the criminal justice system by establishing March as National Criminal Justice Month.
95 4 H RES 195 Recognizing and honoring the employees of the Department of Homeland Security on its sixth anniversary for their continuous efforts to keep the nation safe. No offense intended, but it was our understanding that the "efforts" are paid jobs with precisely these duties in the descriptions.
94 4 H RES 201 Recognizing Beverly Eckerts service to the Nation and particularly to the survivors and families of the September 11 2001 attacks.
106 5 H RES 153 Commending the University of Southern California Trojan football team for its victory in the 2009 Rose Bowl Not even the National Championship... Just some random game. Thanks Rep Diane Watson CA-33 for that valuable expenditure of paid Congressional time!
99 5 H CON RES 14 Supporting the goals and ideals of Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week.
98 5 H RES 146 Designating March 2 2009 as Read Across America Day Note the date of passage. This is past tense "read" so hopefully everyone took advantage of that very special day... Otherwise the paid time for this important vote might have been WASTED!!!
111 9 H RES 222 Congratulating the National Assessment Governing Board on its 20th Anniversary in measuring student academic achievement
110 9 H RES 210 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that providing breakfast in schools through the National School Breakfast Program has a positive impact on classroom performance Praise the Lord for this enlightenment! We ordinary folks simply were never quite sure if feeding hungry kids before a rigorous school day was actually a good idea!
115 10 H R 842 R. Jess Brown United States Courthouse
114 10 H R 813 J. Herbert W. Small Federal Building and United States Courthouse
121 11 H RES 226 Recognizing the plight of the Tibetan people on the 50th anniversary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama being forced into exile and calling for a sustained multilateral effort to bring about a durable and peaceful solution to the Tibet issue
119 11 H CON RES 64 Urging the President to designate 2009 as the Year of the Military Family
116 11 H RES 67 Recognizing and commending the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Cornell University for the success of the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity on the 5th anniversary of their successful landing
124 12 H RES 224 Supporting the designation of Pi Day and for other purposes Yes! Finally! The long overdue recognition of the symbol used for calculating both the area and circumference of a circle!
127 16 H R 1284 Major Ed W. Freeman Post Office
126 16 H R 1217 Specialist Peter J. Navarro Post Office Building
125 16 H R 987 John Scott Challis Jr. Post Office
129 17 H RES 211 Supporting the goals and ideals of National Womens History Month
128 17 H RES 240 To support the goals and ideals of Professional Social Work Month and World Social Work Day
146 23 H R 1218 Lance Corporal Drew W. Weaver Post Office Building Designation
145 23 H R 918 Stan Lundine Post Office Building Designation
149 24 H RES 182 Expressing support for designation of the week of March 1 through March 8 2009 as School Social Work Week. Was that date 2 weeks ago? Oh well, the important thing is that the history books will make it appear that Congress supported you folks for a whole week!
154 25 H RES 273 Recognizing the 188th anniversary of the independence of Greece and celebrating Greek and American democracy
168 31 H RES 282 Recognizing the 30th anniversary of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel


Cost Analysis

Just how much did we the taxpayers pay our Representatives for the frivolous, out-of-touch, time-wasting antics in the House of Representatives?

Rank and file Congressional members earn $174,000 (House and Senate leaders earn more). The number of days in session for the House in 2008 was 118. (Reference House website for Waste in Congress calculation data)

The month of March 2009 was chosen for this exercise because at 19 days "in session" this was a record attendance month for the House of Representatives and should therefore be an excellent activity gauge. It is also recent enough to indicate just how in touch Representatives are with the current state of the nation.

The "absurdly frivolous" votes totaled 25 out of 83 which amounts to 34.3%. This means that the 435 House members were overpaid $4.2 Million in March. If we assume a similar frivolous activity time percentage over the rest of the year, members of the House of Representatives will owe the taxpayers a refund of around $26 Million this year in undeserved salary.