Today I learned that when the US House of Representatives session opens, there are “General Speeches,” where it appears reps can get 1 minute at the start to talk about literally anything.
What if, every day at your job, every teammate of yours could have one minute to talk about anything and take up the time of your *entire* workplace?
And that it isn’t about work, but about absolutely anything at all?
Here’s what each one-minute speech was been about today:
- Congratulating a college football team for its recent win
- Asking Congress to not repeal Obamacare without a replacement, with a personal story from a constituent who would be negatively impacted
- Talking about the Detroit Car Show
- Asking Congress to not repeal Obamacare without a replacement
- A first-year Representative talking about how happy he is to be a member of the House
- (I missed writing down what it was, but it was about a law that will be up for discussion in the House soon)
- Commemorate law enforcement appreciation day
- Talking about moments of silence about victims of gun violence
- Talking about increased premiums due to Obamacare
- Talking about increased premiums due to Obamacare, with a personal story
- Talking about building a Mexican border wall and making Mexico pay for it
- Commemorate law enforcement appreciation day
- Pay tribute to a county judge who recently died
- Talking about increased costs due to Obamacare, with a story of a leukemia patient in Texas who has to pay more for medicine
- Recognize band students who played music at a commemorative event for Pearl Harbor
- Recognize the 10th anniversary of Friends of St. Jude Miami
- Congratulating a football player who played last night
- Congratulated a Florida university’s engineering team who won a robotic competition
Shouldn’t the House talk about the work of governing in these public addresses to the rest of the House, and not congratulate people from their district?
Press releases or press conferences held by the Congresspeople on their own time seem like the completely appropriate venue for thanking and recognizing people.
Taking up the time of literally the entire house of representatives – 435 people – to say they loved that football game last night seems beyond comical.
At least half the speeches above seem absolutely unnecessary to the business of governance.
Since each speech was roughly 1 minute, and there was also time and effort in between in each speech, that took at least 18 minutes of the House’s time. 18 minutes * 435 people = 130.5 person-hours of time spent on just random stuff.
What do you think?