I agree 100% -- Congress (you are entirely correct) normally works like a two-day workweek, from noon Tuesday through noon Thursday. Which is pathetic. Nancy Pelosi, in 2006, came into power swearing Democrats would be working a full work week, or at least four days or so... which didn't last very long before Washington malaise took over. The GOP, this year, didn't even make any such promises. Wonder what all the Tea Party Republican House members think of such nonsense, eh?

Michale -

I have no problem cutting off the WI legislator's paychecks, but then I bet they don't either, as they're making a larger point, I think, by their absence. But I do think it will be an interesting experiment in June (?) when this starts to affect CA legislators. I'll try to remember to report back on how it all works out.

-CW

And, while we're at it, let's emulate what Wisconsin Republicans are doing...

Democrats who have already missed two consecutive floor sessions will now have to come to get their paychecks directly from Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) on the floor of the Senate.

"The majority leader shall provide the checks only to the absent Senator and only on the floor of the Senate during a session day," the new rule reads.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/116686109.html

Isn't that a grand idea!!??? :D

It's time that we forced ALL politicians to actually EARN their paychecks...

Michale.....

"a small sampling of meetings and events that Mike [Capuano, my representative] is scheduled to attend.

* Saturday January 29, 2011
9:00 AM: Mike will attend the NAACP's Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast in Cambridge.

* Thursday January 27, 2011
7:00 PM: Mike will speak at Somerville Community Access Television's annual meeting.

* Wednesday January 26, 2011
8:00 AM: The Democratic Budget Group will meet.

* Tuesday January 25, 2011
2:00 PM: The Committee on Organization, Study and Review, which Mike chairs, will meet.

* Monday January 24, 2011
5:30 PM: The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, of which Mike is Ranking Member, will meet."
http://www.house.gov/capuano/schedules/mikes_schedule.shtml

This is vacation?

If you want to have members of Congress on the floor of the grand chambers in the Capitol building 40 hrs/week, we would need to set up institutions where it would make some sense for them to be there. But I can't imagine what those institutions would be.

Their job, theoretically, is to mediate between their constituents and representatives of the rest of the country doing likewise for theirs. How are they supposed to do that if they're never to spend any time meeting with their constituents?

In Washington, the conventional wisdom holds that if you expect to have anybody show up for a meeting, you need to schedule it on a Wednesday.

On work weeks, congress-people arrive in DC on Tuesday afternoon, and they leave DC on Thursday evening. Should they be paid for Monday, or Friday, and as for Tuesday, let's check the time-clock.

But we're not done yet, it's well known that congress-people spend more time fund-raising than they do legislating, and since fund-raising is personal time, clock out, just like real workers are required to do.

And just to make it clear that we really do hope they'll do what we pay them to do, let's offer pensions to any and all of them that can sustain 80% attendance, or show a doctor's excuse to explain such a high rate of absence.