Episode 15: Congressional Work Week

What’s a typical work week for members of Congress?

(photo by Kitty Felde)

On most weeks, leadership schedules the first votes for Monday at 6:30 pm. That gives most members enough time to fly into Washington from their home districts across the country. The last votes of the week are usually scheduled for early Thursday afternoon to allow lawmakers to fly home to their districts.

That doesn’t mean Congress works 3 1/2 days a week. Note the calendar the notation “District Work Period.” We’ll tackle that in a moment.

During those days when members are on Capitol Hill, there are early morning meetings, committee hearings, lunches with members of their own party, and often a quick walk over to their party’s fundraising headquarters where they can make phone calls to likely donors. They supervise their staff - usually half a dozen or a dozen people like Claudia who keep up on legislation, tackle constituent issues, answer phones and open the mail. NOTE: if yours is the majority party in Congress, you get a bigger staff!

But what happens during a “District Work Period?”

Back home, members of Congress meet with constituents at parades, town halls, and various “meet and greets.” On the left, that’s former Congressman Henry Waxman talking to a group of eighth graders.

Lawmakers often appear at events where federal dollars were spent on local projects. In the center photo, Congresswoman Karen Bass joins L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new mass transit line.

Members often make themselves available to the media, appearing on the Sunday talk shows, talking to local reporters, even appearing on podcasts. On the right, that’s Congressman Mark Takano appearing on the Book Club for Kids podcast.

They also meet with staff members who work out of their district office.

August is nearly always an entire month of “District Work Period.”

The tradition began in 1791, long before there was air conditioning, when anyone who could, would escape Washington D.C. during the worst of the heat and humidity.

In the 1960’s jets made cross country travel easier and lawmakers would fly back and forth every week. Younger lawmakers lobbied older members to let them go home to spend time with their families. Senate Historian Don Ritchie says members were “looking for regularity and wanted to be able to promise their families in January that they could have an August vacation,” It became law in 1970.

The law allows lawmakers to vote to push back the recess if there’s urgent business.

And then there’s an election year calendar.

Every two years, members run for re-election and the Congressional schedule is adjusted to allow lawmakers to go home to campaign. Like this year.

Capitol Hill will be very quiet this October.

Here’s the fiction inspired by the facts:

In Episode 15 of The Fina Mendoza Mysteries, Papa complains about work.

PAPA: “Seems like everybody’s yelling at me these days.”