Evening star., 1963-02-06
The
Rambler
Studies Men
At Work
By JOHN McKELWAY

or about Christmas morning,
The Rambler announced to-
day.
He made the prediction
upon completion of a stat
istical study, called Con
gressional Activity" under
taken at the end of each
January.
Activity is Defined" he
said, "as vigorous or energetic
action; liveliness in doing, or
functioning."
Congress, he said, went to
work on January 9, a cold
day. AS of midnight, Feb
ruary /, the Senate had been
in session l6 days, the House,
10.
This means, he continued,
that the Senate spent n
hours and % minutes in dis
cussion, while the House had
talked for 20 hours and 40
minutes.
Another way Of measuring
this, he emphasized, was to
note that the Senate covered
1882 pages in the Congress
sional Record. But the House
needed only SIS.
But this does not mean,
necessarily, that the Senate
was more active than the
House, the study claimed.
Members of the House, for
example, were able to intro
duce 3,276 bills although they
were in session six days less
than the Senate. Senators,
on the other hand, only in
troduced $40 bills. The House
also topped the Senate in the
number Of Joint resolutions,
concurrent resolutions and
simple resolutions. In the
case Of the latter, the House
came up with 232 simple res
olutions, compared to only 70
in the Senate, which means,
of course, that the House
leads the Senate in simple
resolutions.
IN ANOTHER PHASE of
the study, The Rambler ex-
amined the movement of
bills through both houses.
On the House side, there
were exactly zero number of
bills, both private and public,
passed and enacted into law.
The same was true, in jan
uary, for the number of bills
either in conference or
through conference.
Bills, both public and pri-
vate. have been similarly
treated in the Senate.
Interestingly enough, in
both the House and Senate,
there have been no reported
bills mot acted on" as the
report puts it.
1t is fascinating to note
also, the report charges, that
there have been IA quorum
calls in the Senate and only
one in the House. Then
again, there have been no
bills vetoed nor have any
yetoes been overridden.
AS FOR THE DISPOSE
TION of executive nominal =
tions, a field of activity han
died exclusively by the Sen
ate, they have been disposed
Of in the following manner
There have been 2,097
Army nominations received
and none of these have been
either confirmed, withdrawn
or rejected.
The same is true for 1913
Air Force nominations, A
Navy nominations and seven
Marine Corps nominations.
AS for civilian nominations,
other than postmasters, the
Senate has received a total
of 963 names. Three we're
acted upon-they were with
drawn. AS for the rest, they
have been neither confirmed,
withdrawn, rejected or un-
confirmed.
The report, or study, does
not say what has happened
to all the postmaster nom
nations nor does 1t make
any attempt TO find out.
The study, or report, draws
no conclusions-it also lacks
a covering letterand closes
with the adjournment pre-
diction.
In an epilogue, however,
The Rambler was pleased to
note the House passed two
bills on February 4.
One authorizes the Sec
retary Of Defense TO lend
equipment TO the Boy Scouts
for use in their jamboree.
This could mean an arms
build up among $4,000
Scouts, The Rambler warned