Senate In The Shadow, House Yet To Look Forward
The Library of Congress keeps a record of the top ten pieces of congressional legislation every week – “top” in terms of searches of its database. Looking at this record for 2011 so far, two things are clear: The Senate has sunk into the shadow, while the House of Representatives is obsessed with the past.
Of 27 pieces of legislation that have reached the top 10 list in 2011 so far, only two originated in the Senate. Those two pieces of legislation were never near the #1 top searches, and only stayed on the top 10 list for a week or two. Legislation that originated in the House of Representatives has dominated the public’s attention – or at least the attention of members of the public who care enough about their responsibility as citizens to check the Library of Congress legislative database.
Nonetheless, for the entire year so far, most of the House legislation that has been searched for is legislation from the past, not legislation that House Republicans have put forward themselves. Last week, finally, 5 of the top 10 searches were for pieces of legislation from the 112th Congress, rather than legislation from the 111th Congress.
Yet, many of the most followed bills from the 112th Congress look to the past. They do not seek to enact a new legislative vision for the United States of America. Rather, they seek merely to react to the 111th Congress, to repeal, to cut, to undo what has been done by others.
The House of Representatives led by the Republican Party has yet to show America a compelling vision of what it wants to do. Even though the Republicans have now been in the majority for weeks, they are still behaving merely as the Party Of No.
