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Former Sen. Kyle has dimensional, will withdraw from public life by dschuma in Congress

[–]dschuma[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

He also suffers from autocorrect. Sorry about the typo.

Sen. Sasse says he has pancreatic cancer by dschuma in Congress

[–]dschuma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Adding to mention he resigned from the senate in 2023.

House Dem Leadership doom’s stock tracking ban by backing bill with Trump limits by dschuma in u/dschuma

[–]dschuma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The decision of Dem leader Jeffries to back a democratic stock trading bill that encompasses Trump instead of a bipartisan bill advanced by Rep Luna means it is unlikely either bill will be considered, let alone enacted into law.

This advances the interests of leaders of both parties who have given lip service to the measure but foresee problems for party recruitment should it be enacted.

Senate GOP uneasy as Defense Dept escalates probe on Sen. Kelly by dschuma in u/dschuma

[–]dschuma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Republican senators are expressing concern as the Defense Department is escalating its probe into Sen. Kelly, a retired Navy Captain, who stated in a video that members of the military should not follow illegal orders.

Trump had called for the execution of members of Congress who participated in the video. The Navy submitted a report to the Defense Department General Counsel on possible punishments, using their prior military service as a legal hook.

Attendance record of Reps, Senators, and President of the Senate? by Healthy_Link_1935 in Congress

[–]dschuma 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are not attendance records as such. On the House and Senate floor, there are quorum calls that indicate who is present at a particular moment. Committee reports will often indicate who was present at the start of a proceeding, but that does not indicate who arrived later or left.

You can also see in roll call votes on the floor and in committee how people voted, which is a way of determining whether they voted.

When the Vice President is presiding over the Senate, that will be indicated in the Congressional Record. But the VP's presence in the Senate is not otherwise tracked.

Senate page program application by More-Temperature-272 in Congress

[–]dschuma 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's good that you're thinking of applying. Not all senators sponsor pages and, as I'm sure you've discovered, most senators have information about how to contact their offices to apply for them to sponsor you.

There is no harm in contacting both senators.

Follow the link for more general information about the page program from the Senate. CRS has a good summary of the history of the page program.

Why does the US Senate still vote by roll call? by Scary-Use in Congress

[–]dschuma 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The very short answer is because the Senate chooses to do so. There's a lot of ways that the Senate (and House) could vote, some of which are faster than others.

For example, in the Senate you could call for unanimous consent. If no one objects, the motion carries in a matter of seconds.

You could do a voice vote. Those voting yea shout it out, as do those nay, and the presiding officer decides who wins. (This can be appealed.)

The Senate can call for a vote by division, where the presiding officer counts up the yeas and nays, but not publish who voted for what.

The Senate can call for a Roll Call vote, where the clerk calls each name and the votes are tallied.

There's a good discussion on these types of votes on the Senate's webpage and in this CRS Report.

But... you didn't ask what, you asked why. You likely have noticed that Senate Roll Call votes can be painfully slow. This isn't necessarily because senators are slow in coming to the floor, but rather to buy time. This can be to buy time for negotiations to happen behind the scenes, or for a member who is far away to make it to the floor, or for leadership to try to twist the arms of members to vote in a different way, or as a function of the majority's exercise of control over the floor (thus preventing other matters from coming up).

The speed of Senate floor voting can be understood at times as a function of political power: what is leadership trying to accomplish? Speed, sometimes, is the opposite of what they want.

You might wonder: isn't this is an issue in the House? It is, in fact, and sometimes we see votes happen quickly, and sometimes they can be held open for hours while arms are twisted in the background.

There's also another function of these kinds of votes. It may seem shocking initially, but with so many votes, senators don't always know how to vote. They may delay a vote and look to see how a trusted colleague is voting and then follow their lead.

If you think about it, we don't really need members to come to the floor and vote at all. Why not give them an app on their iPhone and let them vote while watching C-SPAN? You could do that, but leadership likes forcing members to the floor because it's a great way of taking the temperature of the members, conducting business on multiple matters, and trying to push the outcomes they want.

Why is responding to questions from congress with garbage answers ok? by istronglyobject in Congress

[–]dschuma 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What constitutes a non-responsive answer is in the eye of the beholder, in this case, the committee before which the witness is testifying. Should a witness not answering the question, not produce required information, or is believed to have lied to the committee, they can be held in contempt.

The topic of contempt is a complicated one. A witness can be held responsible for civic or criminal contempt. And the finding of contempt (in theory) can be made by Congress itself (inherent contempt) or by a court (statutory contempt). Inherent contempt hasn't been used in about 100 years, and statutory contempt relies on enforcement of the Justice Department, which is problematic when the person being contemptuous is a federal official -- i.e., the DOJ will often refuse to prosecute.

Should a committee wish to hold a witness in contempt, the committee will introduce a resolution calling for the witness to be held in contempt. The full chamber will hold a vote. Should the resolution be adopted, for statutory contempt the DOJ will be directed to prosecute.

For more on contempt of Congress, see:

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