Last week, during Congress’ lame duck session to consider economic stimulus legislation, a couple dozen more bills were introduced, bringing the total number of bills in the current Congress above 11,000. And it’s not over: Congress will probably come back the week of December 8th to do a little more legislating.

Statistics don’t often mean a lot - particularly simple ones like “number of bills introduced.” But when you see thousands and thousands of bills go in the hopper and nothing being done to run the legislative trains on time, something is going wrong.

I pointed this out in a post from August called “10,000 Bills Introduced in Congress, While Government Management Goes Neglected.” Congress was writing all this legislation, but didn’t pass any regular annual spending bills. The number of bills has increased by 10% since then.

One is struck with curiosity, of course, why some bills are introduced with just days to go in the legislative session. They’re not going anywhere. When Congress finally adjourns sine die (latin for “for real”), all these bills will be dead. The process starts over again next year.

And that’s actually part of the story, starting over again. Lobbyists and congressional staff like to point out that a bill has a history - “It’s been introduced in the last three Congresses” - to show that a bill is something serious. So they might still work to get a bill introduced even if it has no chance of passing.

But more than that, I think it’s a signal that Congress is doing too many things at once. And, as noted in that 10,000 bills post, it’s definitely not doing the regular work of running the government. It’s enough to make you want to . . . take the rest of the week off and eat some turkey!

With the drama of the election and the recent huge bailout and spending bills flying through Congress, it’s easy to forget the kajillions of little things the federal government is churning out all the time.

So here’s one that caught my eye - the Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has just announced a meeting “of the General Conference Committee of the National Poultry Improvement Plan.” It’ll be held at the at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta January 28, so book your plane tickets now if you want to go.

The meeting will be open to the public, but I was disappointed to learn that the public is not allowed to participate in the discussions during the meeting. I had thought that I would share my personal poultry improvement plan, which is to cook it in some oil and spices and plop it into folded corn tortillas with a dollop of sour cream.

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Word on the street is that Congress will come back in on November 17th to do some post-election business. The respite gives us time to look at some of the bills hustled across the House floor while we were concentrating on the big stuff.

Though there might be more silliness when Congress comes back, this is the final one in this set of “Silly Season” posts. Here are the previous installments: Silly Season on Capitol Hill; Silly Season, Part Deux; Silly Season, Part C; and Silly Season, Part IV.

Here are some of the bills that saw action on the House floor Thursday and Friday last week. It wasn’t the silliest period compared to a few days earlier but, again, these bills could have been debated at any time, not just the last two days of the regular session:

H.R. 5159
The Capitol Visitor Center Act of 2008
Costs: $1.51 per family

S. 3641
A bill to authorize funding for the National Crime Victim Law Institute to provide support for victims of crime under Crime Victims Legal Assistance Programs as a part of the Victims of Crime Act of 1984

H.R. 7221
The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2008

S. 3197
The National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Act of 2008
Costs: $0.00 per family

H.R. 5714
The United States Army Commemorative Coin Act of 2008

H.R. 6867
The Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008

S. 602
The Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007
Costs: $0.00 per family

H.R. 6469
The Organ Transplant Authorization Act of 2008

S. 3197
The National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Act of 2008
Costs: $0.00 per family

H.R. 7222
To extend the Andean Trade Preference Act, and for other purposes

Monday was another day with a cavalcade of bills streaming through the House of Representatives.

While you were watching the bailout (just at the moment I’m posting this, the House is debating the rule that would govern its debate on the Senate-passed bailout bill), or perhaps noting the beginning of the new fiscal year without a budget for most federal agencies, Congress was passing bills on half the things under the sun.

[Previous posts in this series: Silly Season on Capitol Hill; Silly Season, Part Deux; and Silly Season, Part C.]

Here are some of the bills that saw action on the House floor Monday:

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Silly season on Capitol Hill. It’s that special time of year when Congress nears the end of its scheduled session and decides to do all its work at once. Dozens of bills fly across the House floor with little debate.

They’re not all bad bills, but nothing prevented Congress from addressing them at a careful pace all through the winter, spring, and summer.

This year has been particularly silly, as Congress didn’t even try to follow its annual budgeting and spending process. It just passed a temporary measure on the fly, funding the government through the first half of the fiscal year in one big bill.

Then along came the financial services crisis. (Or is it a “crisis”? I’m less and less sure that it’s a crisis for anyone more than the investment bankers who overextended themselves.)

Smack dab at the end of the session, right when members want to go home and campaign, they have to think about a $700 bailout of the financial services industry. (Text of the proposal that failed Monday is here.)

Congress comes back Thursday - maybe to consider another bailout proposal. Don’t lose focus on that issue just yet!

But for the moment, let’s take a look at some of what the Congress did while we focused on everything else that Congress was doing. These are the bills that went to the floor of the House of Representatives on Saturday. The bills that were on the House floor last Thursday and Friday are here and here. Monday’s bills coming soon:
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Congress has all the planning skills and foresight of a teenager.

Y’know how when mom and dad are coming back from their weekend away, the kid tries to do all the chores for the weekend in the last hour? That’s Congress.

So as we wrap up the current Session, Congress is racing to do all the things it should have done all year long. Members are throwing every pet project they’ve got at the leadership, hoping to get it through before the Congress ends.

Sure, we’ve got spending decisions for fiscal year 2009, and this financial services bailout, but let’s try to get through dozens of other bills at the same time.

Here’s a look at all the bills that were on the House floor just yesterday. Lots of them are simple and straightforward, but nothing kept Congress from addressing them all through the year.

Congress waited until the last minute and most assuredly isn’t showing these bills, or the really big issues before it, the care it should. We citizens haven’t gotten much of a chance to look them over either.

H.R. 3018
The Family Self-Sufficiency Act of 2007

H.R. 3402
The Calling Card Consumer Protection Act

H.R. 3232
The Travel Promotion Act of 2007

H.R. 6950
The Stephanie Tubbs Jones Gift of Life Medal Act of 2008

H.R. 1014
The Heart Disease Education, Analysis Research, and Treatment for Women Act

H.R. 6946
To make a technical correction in the NET 911 Improvement Act of 2008

H.R. 1343
The Health Centers Renewal Act of 2007
Costs $102.88 per family

S. 2932
The Poison Center Support, Enhancement, and Awareness Act of 2008

S. 1810
The Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act
Costs $0.17 per family

S. 1382
The ALS Registry Act
Costs $0.62 per family

H.R. 6568
The Tom Lantos Pulmonary Hypertension Research and Education Act of 2008

H.R. 6901
The Meth Free Families and Communities Act

H.R. 6469
The Organ Transplant Authorization Act of 2008

H.R. 1157
The Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act of 2007

H.R. 758
The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2007
Costs $0.00 per family

H.R. 4544
The Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2007

H.R. 4120
The Effective Child Pornography Prosecution Act of 2007

H.R. 6045
The Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act of 2008

S. 1046
The Senior Professional Performance Act of 2007
Costs $0.05 per family

S. 928
The Homeowners Protection Act of 2007

What do avocadoes have to do with national security? Nothing!

One of the things the federal government is supposed to be doing is protecting the nation. One of the things the federal government is not supposed to be doing is marketing avocadoes.

But there it is, looking after the marketing of avocadoes grown in southern Florida.

In a Federal Register announcement out this morning, the Agricultural Marketing Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is initiating a referendum among producers of avocadoes in south Florida to see if they want the marketing order regulating the handling of their avocadoes to continue.

What are marketing orders? According to the USDA:

Federal marketing orders are locally administered by committees made up of growers and/or handlers, and often a member of the public. Marketing order regulations, initiated by industry and enforced by USDA, bind the entire industry in the geographical area regulated if approved by producers and the Secretary of Agriculture.

What that means is that everybody producing a crop in a certain area has to pay in to a marketing and promotion fund for uses dictated by the majority of producers in that area. Big agribusinesses get to force the small ones to pay for programs that benefit the big agribusinesses because they’re usually the majority of producers and they set the rules. Result? Less competition and less variety in the crops that come to market.

The Agriculture Marketing Service is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is funded by the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The Senate version of this bill is S. 3289.

Here’s the current vote on the bill. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki article about the bill.

Last week, I wrote here about Congress passing through 10,000 introduced bills even while the annual spending process goes neglected.

Now the Wall Street Journal has picked up the story, coming at it from a slightly different angle. The story is called “As U.S. Economic Problems Loom, House, Senate Sweat the Small Stuff,” and reporter Elizabeth Williamson points out how many symbolic resolutions have been introduced in Congress while the real work of government goes by the wayside.

The 110th Congress, whose term officially ends in January, hasn’t passed any spending bills or attacked high gasoline prices. But it has used its powers to celebrate watermelons and to decree the origins of the word “baseball.”

Williamson’s story emphasizes the small number of bills that have been passed into law, but counting laws is not an appropriate measurement of Congress’ work. A small number of high quality laws would be much better than numerous junk laws.

But like the 10,000 bills post, the story highlights the fact that Congress hasn’t taken care of its basic responsibilities.

Congress, which won’t return to session until September, has yet to pass any 2009 appropriations bills, even though funding the federal budget is its official function. Before leaving town for summer break in August, lawmakers failed to establish August as Heat Stroke Awareness Month, blowing the deadline to make it official.

Now, you won’t find the Heat Stroke Awareness Month resolution or the “we love watermelon” resolution here on WashingtonWatch.com. We have them in our database, but generally don’t display the symbolic bills. The 10,000 bills I wrote about are all substantive and not the symbolic stuff featured in the WSJ story.

But the point is the same. Congress is frittering away its time, while its basic responsibilities are going neglected.

As I finished assembling the WashingtonWatch.com Digest for the week (see it here), I realized that the featured laws represent an interesting cross-section of things the federal government does - though not nearly all of it, of course.

Take Public Law 110-315, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007. This is mostly about redistributing wealth. The $1,200 in spending per U.S. family is mostly intended to go toward getting young people through college.

Does it actually get there? Not so sure. And does it go from, say, people who have plenty of money to people in need? Doubtful. This looks like classic middle-class entitlement legislation. Feel free to blast me in the comments if you think it’s not.

Then there’s Public Law 110-314, the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act. It’s a classic example of public health and safety regulation.

Does it do the job and cost-effectively make us safer? There’s often more to the story, as regulatory agencies can be captured by the companies they regulate. But at thirty cents or so per U.S. family (and whatever costs might be imposed by the regulations - which are very hard to determine), it’s hard to complain about this one compared to one costing $1,200.

Finally, Public Law 110-316, the Animal Drug User Fee Amendments of 2008. This is also health and safety regulation. But . . . it’s about the health and safety of animals.

A buck-fifty per family isn’t a lot, but how many buck-fifty programs at the outer edge or beyond the federal government’s real responsibility are you willing to support? It’s stuff like animal drug regulation that we created the Jack of All Trades - Master of None category for.

WashingtonWatch.com isn’t going to make you an expert on every bill in Congress, but perhaps you’ll be in a better position to make a few judgments about what you like and don’t like. Keep watching.

The variety of things your government does is nearly endless. Here’s an announcement by the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities that they will be studying the impact of free access to computers and the Internet at public libraries. (Yes, there’s an Institute of Museum and Library Services. You’re paying for it.)

Want me to tell you what the impact of free Internet access in libraries is? Some people who otherwise couldn’t can get online for free. Some people who could pay for Internet access don’t because they can get it for free at the library. And some of the people using the Internet at the library look at porn and stuff, which is pretty creepy. There’s your study!

But maybe there’s more to it. Should your tax dollars go to the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities so it can conduct this study?

It’s funded through the Interior Appropriations bill. Alas, neither the House nor the Senate has even introduced an Interior Approps bill. They should have - the new fiscal year starts October 1st, just a few weeks after Congress returns from its August recess.

(Here’s last year’s House and Senate bills - costing about $225 per U.S. family - which were rolled into the big ol’ Consolidated Appropriations Act ($9,400/U.S. family). Congress passed it in late December, 2007 - almost three months into the current fiscal year.)