Congress’ dynamics.
WORKFORCE
Congress’ workforce consists of 535 workers…100 Senators and 435 members of the House of Representatives. After taking their Oath-of-Office, the new members of Congress are supplied with an outline of expected time allocation.
Model Daily Schedule-DC
4 hours…Call-Time (Raise $)
1-2 hours…Constituent Visits
2 hours…Committee/Floor*
1 hour…Strategic Outreach…breakfasts…
meet and greets…press.
1 hour…Recharge.
* For a 10 hour day, only 2 hours are allocated to work on legislation; what they get paid for! That reduces the workforce to (2/10)(535)=107. The net workforce, available for working on legislative matters is 107 workers!
WORKLOAD
Due to the high volume and complexity of its work, Congress divides its tasks among approximately 250 committees and subcommittees.
There are 17 Senate committees, with 70 subcommittees, and 23 House committees with 104 subcommittees. There are 5 Special, Select, and other committees, and 4 Joint committees; a total of 223 committees, subcommittees, special, select, and joint committees.
The committees are not set in stone, but change in number and form with each new Congress as required for the efficient consideration of legislation. The House and Senate each have their own committee system, which are similar. Within chamber guidelines, however, each committee adopts its own rules, so there is considerable variation among panels. From George B. Galloway (1898-1967) an American scholar…”In practice, the Congress functions not as a unified institution, but as a collection of semi-autonomus committees that seldom act in unison. Committee autonomy is a factor interfering with the adoption of a coherent legislative program.Such autonomy remains a characteristic feature of the committee system in Congress today!” Each committee is made up of 16 members. Subcommittees are made up of something less than 16 members. In the past some committees have exceeded 16 membeers (i.e., 23,30,37,39, etc.)
OPERATIONS.
let’s assume that at day zero the operation parameters are:…A net workforce of 107 workers…All committees have 15 members…All subcommittees have 5 members…Each worker is limited to 1 committee or 1 subcommittee.
With the above set of operation parameters Congress can support 7 committees, and have 2 spare workers. As new Committees and Subcommittees are needed, the size and number of Committees/Subcommittees must be changed to keep the number of workers required no more than 107. It is obvious that Congress’ goal of dividing its tasks among approximately 250 Committees and Subcommittees is unachievable!
The above analysis is based on two critical assumptions:…All members of Congress are on the same page regarding improving government of, by, and for the people…There is no attempt by special interest groups to manipulate the legislative process via campaign donations, special gifts, and quid pro quo arrangements. Since both of these assumptions are wrong, and the exact opposite is true, it is obvious why Congress has been dysfunctional since day one.
NO COMMON SENSE
ANALYZE THE EXAMPLE
* Which supports and barriers were in play?
* What were the dynamics?
* Who, or what, won the Tug-of-War?
* Discuss the outcome with your friends and family.
* Use Post #4 as a reference for the dynamics, and the relationships, between supports and barriers.
