Reid puts lawmakers back on the clock

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2006 | 7:10 a.m.

WASHINGTON - The do-nothing Congress is no more.

Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid has set out an ambitious agenda for when Democrats take control next month. The Senate will run seven weeks straight with just one holiday. No more weeklong St. Patrick's Day recess. April's spring break will be sliced from two weeks to one. The House is making similar plans but the schedule is not yet set.

As the Republican-led Congress prepares to wrap up for the year, it has a record of working fewer days than any Congress in recent history. Now the Senate will work five-day workweeks - the kind most people put in.

"This is what they would expect in Searchlight," professor John Pitney of Claremont McKenna College said of Reid's hometown.

But those expectations might not mean much in the long run, he said. "People think if Congress isn't meeting on the floor, they're off sipping mint juleps," Pitney said. "But in the end, people's judgment of Congress will depend on what Congress accomplishes, not how many hours it's in session."

Republican congressional leaders adopted a Tuesday-through-Thursday workweek after gaining power in 1994. The purpose was for members to get away from Washington regularly to stay in touch with their districts.

But this year, as the war in Iraq dragged on and lawmakers failed to make progress on health care, retirement security and immigration, public approval ratings of Congress sank to the mid-20 percent range.

Voters put the Democrats in charge, and the rumblings from Reid began immediately.

"You folks should get ready for longer days around here," Reid told Nevada reporters the week after the election. "And you should get ready for longer weeks."

The new schedule spells it out: Congress resumes Jan. 4 - 2 1/2 weeks earlier than this year. Once members are sworn in that Thursday morning, they will have to stay in town instead of bolting to spend a few more weeks on break. The only relief before Presidents Day will be for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The Senate will still take a week off for Memorial Day and another week for Fourth of July. And Congress will have the month of August off as usual - it's the law.

The stepped-up schedule will aid Democrats as they move forward with plans to tackle big items right away, including raising the minimum wage, executing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, enabling the government to buy cheaper prescription drugs and ethics reform.

"We have a full plate," Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley said. She hopes that with the new schedule, "we could actually get something accomplished."

Berkley, however, hopes the demands will ease eventually because she still plans to fly home to Las Vegas most weekends.

Newly elected Republican Rep. Dean Heller said he understands the reason for the new schedule. Voters are upset and want results from Congress.

"I'm used to working five days a week, so it's not a problem for me," the outgoing Nevada secretary of state said. But what is a problem for Heller is the absence of direct flights between Washington, D.C., and Reno. He doubts he will be able to make the eight-hour cross-country trip every other weekend, as he could have under the old schedule.

He said he hopes Congress has something to show for the hours punched. "You could still be a do-nothing Congress and spend a lot of hours doing nothing."