Congress Could Use a Day Off
Historically, Congress has avoided Sunday sessions. This weekend, Speaker Pelosi should consider that whether the members and staff worship on Sunday (or at all), surely they would benefit from a day of rest.
Eric Liddell: Hey, do you not know what day it is?
Boy: Yeah.
Eric Liddell: Tell me then.
Boy: Sunday.
Eric Liddell: The Sabbath's not a day for playing football, is it?
Boy: No.
Chariots of Fire, 1981
For those who haven’t seen the movie, in the scene described above, the great British track star Eric Liddell has just had a muddy soccer ball hit his suit pants while on the way to church. The scene foreshadows . . . well, see the movie.
This list from the fascinating and comprehensive historical materials carefully maintained by the Clerk of the House gives the best account of all legislative days that have occurred on Saturday and Sunday since the First Congress in 1789. Sunday sessions are in bold. The first Sunday meeting of a house of Congress appears to have taken place March 3, 1799, which was the final day of the Fifth Congress, next followed by a burst of Sunday activity in 1903 at the end of the Fifty-Seventh Congress.
The House Clerk’s office makes the excellent point that given the difficulties of travel in early America, it made sense for Congress to meet at least on Saturdays if business needed to be done. Sessions were shorter and more intense than in today’s essentially permanent legislature. Everyone was in Washington anyway, with no weekend trips to the district, so why not meet, get the job done more quickly, and return home to business or plow?
Reviewing the list of the Sunday sessions, one sees some of the crises of recent history but more the impression of occasional – and then in recent years more frequent – frantic work before adjournment. From a Christian perspective, one may consider this a bit of an example of Matthew 12:11 (“Jesus said to them, ‘Which of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?”) with the normal human failings and delays leading to lateness here being the “sheep.” Not ideal, tough on Members, their staff, and their familiees, but somewhat understandable as exceptions from the usual practice. (It would be a fascinating study to see what bills were considered so urgent as to be discussed on those days – if one has been done, please link to it in the comments.)
But the general rule has been: no Sunday sessions. Even the Constitution (Article I, Section 7) gives the President the clear option of a day of rest from considering bills that Congress has passed (“If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a law, in like Manner as if he had signed it.”
Whether the Members and staff worship on Sunday (or at all), surely they would benefit from a day of rest. Why not give them one? Why not let them clear their minds? Why the need to continue the high-pressure sales operation?
So what’s the rush today? No one really knows what’s in the bill outside of a few highly connected individuals, the Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services can’t provide a cost analysis in time, and the Members and staff are presumably, tired, confused, and overwhelmed – not a good recipe for considering legislation affecting one-seventh of the economy and raising the prospect of massive Federal spending and deficits for decades.
In the movie, after the scene quoted above, Liddell tells the children to “come around” to his house the next day, Monday, “and we’ll have a game then.”
So come around, Madam Speaker, and we’ll have a vote tomorrow. That’s not agreeing with the Republicans to start over, it’s merely giving people a day to think or, if they wish, to pray. Anyone of whatever political and economic views whose convictions on what could be the most important vote of their careers cannot withstand a day of rest and a good night’s sleep shouldn’t be forced to vote today.