Nearly sixty years ago President Harry S. Truman [3] infamously derided the 1947-1948 Congress as the "Do-Nothing Congress [4]" for meeting for only 108 days [5]. Well, Harry must be rolling in his grave, because the current U.S. House of Representatives [6] (now on their annual August break) is projected to spend a mere 79 days in session [7] in 2006.

This is largely due to their extended "district work periods" in which they go home and meet with constituents, campaign and fit in a few rounds of golf. While most Americans returned from their holiday vacation in the first week of January, the House took nearly the entire month off, commencing the session [8] on January 31st. In February, the House met for only 47 hours [9], an average work week for many Americans. While the year still has over 4 months to go, the calendar leaves a maximum of only 16 additional days [10] for the House to complete its business. Meanwhile, the Senate is also projected to have a light workload this year, devoting only 125 days [11] to legislative business, a 34-day drop [12] from 2005.

As part of Congresspedia [13]'s continuing development of articles on how Congress works [14], we've looked back at the last dozen years of congressional calendar [15]s, which are set by the Speaker of the House [16] and Senate Majority Leader [17]. You can see the results at our new article on congressional calendar [15]s, which includes this interesting chart:

So, if you're looking for a taskmaster Speaker [18], look no further than Newt Gingrich [19], who kept the House [20] in session for 183 days [21] in 1995 as he was implementing the Contract with America [22] following the 1994 "Republican Revolution," an increase of 59 days from the previous year.

Now, while many [23] have [24] expressed [25] displeasure [26] with the work habits of the 2006 Congress, defenders of the part-time Congress range from small-government advocates to those who believe that members should spend a majority of their time at home interacting with constituents. House Majority Leader John Boehner [27] (R-Ohio) is one of these believers. He stated [28], "Part of our job is here, but part of our job is to see our constituents. And it is an election year, and people want to see more of their constituents, and their constituents probably want to see more of their members."

Consistent with Boehner's claim, the House did in fact devote several days throughout the year as "district-work periods [29]." None of these, however, fell in January, November, or December. In addition, very few were planned for August, September, or October, leaving the House with the type of recess that would make any schoolchild very jealous.