Exactly How Many Days Does Congress Work?

The laws of the United States of America are made by our legislative branch of government which is our Congress. They make the laws that influence our daily lives. They hold hearings to inform the legislative process, conduct investigations to oversee the executive branch, and are supposed to serve as the voice of the people and states of the United States.

We all know Congress is split up in two chambers, one being the House of Representatives and the other being the Senate. They write legislation by dividing work into separate committees which specialize in different areas. I am not questioning who or what our Congress is since I already went over that in my blog about the Constitution, Article I. I am however questioning how aware most American citizens are about the amount of time Congress actually spends doing their job and the amount of pay afforded them to do this job. I don’t think many have a clue because if they did they would up in arms.

Believe it or not Congress puts in less days and hours per year than the average school teacher yet makes a much larger salary.  The base salary for all members of the U.S. House and the Senate which makes up our Congress is $ 174,000.00 per year. Granted they haven’t had a raise since 2009 but they are also making more than the average middle class family with two salaries coming in.

Yes they do pay their taxes just the same as we do including social security tax which many people are under the assumption they don’t pay. Never assume folks always do your homework especially since this is a matter of public record. Just like the information that members are free to turn down pay increases and some of them do turn them down. I mean look at our President, he’s working without a pay, so it can be done.

When Congress gets a raise it also affects the salaries for federal judges and other senior government executives so if they haven’t had a pay raise since 2009 neither have the others. If we take the time to go back in history, and we all know I love doing that, to when the Constitution was being written and the rules were being set forth Benjamin Franklin thought elected government officials should not be paid for their service. When it came to make the decision other Founding Fathers thought it best if they did get paid for their service.

At first members of Congress didn’t receive a yearly salary but they were paid per diem. A daily salary of a whopping $ 6.00 while in session only from 1765 to 1855, except for the period of time from December 1815 to March 1817. During this time Congress was paid $ 1,500.00 for the year.

After March of 1817 the went  to $ 8.00 per diem per session until 1855 at which time Congress began receiving an annual salary of $ 3,000 per year. This was not a poor salary by any means for that time since the average person made about $15.00 at a low to $ 30.00 at a high per month. So I would say Congress was doing pretty well for themselves. Of course with times wages went up as cost of living wage increases.

Now when it comes to the Majority Party Leader and Minority Party Leader of the Senate their salary is $ 193,400 per year. As for House Leadership, the Speaker of the House earns $ 223, 500 per year, the Majority and Minority Leaders have the same income as the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders.

Like any other job in this country there are certain benefits Members of Congress do receive. In 1983 amendments to the Social Security Act required federal employees hired after 1983 to participate in Social Security this also included members of Congress but it didn’t matter as to when they entered Congress all members of the House and Senate had to start paying into Social Security as of January 1, 1984. Until then federal employees and Congress were not allowed to collect Social Security since they were not paying into it. Until then they were all covered by a separate pension plan called the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). This brought on the Federal Employees’ Retirement System Act of 1986 which was a new retirement plan for federal workers.

Congress did not escape the “Obamacare Act” in 2014. The only health care coverage now made available to members of Congress is through the Health Insurance Exchange so like so many other American’s they are stuck with Obamacare but they can afford to pay the price increases that have hit this country since the onset of Obamacare. The average American family is suffering to pay these bills.

As for their pension, well let me just say, I wish I could have a small portion of what one Congressman gets in a year. You see Congressmen or women are not eligible for a pension until they have served for at least 5 years. Really? A term in the Senate is 6 years! There are stipulations as to when they can collect their pension with having to be at least 50 years of age but only if they completed 20 years of service. Can you or I retire at 50 with a full pension at such a young age regardless of the years you put into your position, no, I think not. Now if a member of Congress served 25 years then they can collect their pension at any age.

So these are some of the financial benefits of our Congressmen and women but the big question is: how hard do they work for all of this?  I mean the average person works a 50 week year to get a 2 week vacation and of course that can be added too depending on the agreement the employee has with his or her employer. Actually a teacher puts in more time than our Congress and people get upset on how much a teacher earns. That’s a laugh.

The House of Representatives has averaged 138 “legislative days” a year since 2001. In that time period 2001 to present day the Senate has put in a whopping 162 days year. These records are public knowledge and kept by the Library of Congress.

When we talk about a “legislative day” in the House it can run for more than 24 hours. You see, the legislative day ends only when the session of the House is adjourned. For the Senate it’s a bit different. A legislative day for the Senate can go beyond the 24 hour workday and sometimes stretches into a week. It doesn’t mean that the entire time Senators are sitting there around the clock in meetings. All it means is they just recessed the legislative session instead of adjourning it at the end of the day.

In an average week of work during the time they are actually in Washington, the House averages 18 hours a week for work. This is based on information collected in 2013 and an analysis conducted by the New York Times. T hat same year the Senate had 99 voting days.

What gets me is Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was concerned about taking this job because of it getting in the way of his time with his family. He practically has a no show job. I won’t say it’s a cake job because we all know politics is stressful and that’s just as the voters so I do get the stress they feel actually being there but come on folks for the money they are being paid they should have to at least work a full week and stop putting important issues to the side till they return. No get the work done then take a freaking break.

I know just because they are on break doesn’t mean they don’t have things to do while they are at home. I am sure they take things home to work on and I am sure they come up with bills to put before Congress when they are on break but they are home and working not in Washington.

There has been talk in the past of two things, one being Congress should have to work a regular work week and I am all for that. I get that they need more of a break due to the stress of the position but if they can’t handle it then they shouldn’t be there. The other is there should be term limits put to Congress. No one should be allowed to serve in Congress for more than two terms.

This is my opinion, I feel they get too comfortable in office and forget why they are there. They forget about the people who voted them into office and just worry about keeping that office. Ever wonder why they are always so busy on an election year? Why on an election year you can call their office and ask for the moon and they would get it for you? Easy they want to get back into office and once they do many of them go back to doing absolutely nothing but complain about everything going on around them they don’t like instead of fixing it. It’s time to call your Congressmen or women and see to it they are keeping up with their promises and working for the betterment of the United States of America and all American citizens.

May God Bless America and help Congress get the job done.