Congress Should Clock In

The public deserves clarity into how its representatives are spending their time in an official capacity. While some data on how money moves through politics is available,[1] there is none on how politicians spend their working hours outside of votes and committee meetings.

Congress works for us. It's time for them to clock in.

American Whig's position is that Congress needs to start reporting how members spend their time, with each member required to report monthly:

• Total time spent in an official capacity
• A log of who the member met or spoke with by phone, in an official capacity

Congress members, under this new rule, would be incentivized to self-report monthly, as it would be a matter of public record when they fail to do so. If more incentive is needed, there are established mechanisms Congress already uses to discipline members for improper conduct, e.g. censure, and stripping committee assignments.[2]

Some members already publicly report how they spend their time at work and ought to be recognized for their commitment to transparency in government.

A Matter of Record

This rule would result in useful public data. Voters would be able to see which representatives are giving more time to their constituents versus their donors.

Other questions this data could answer:

• Do the politicians who spend the most time with certain individuals tend to vote a certain way?
• Do politicians who spend the least time with constituents tend to be Republicans or Democrats?
• Is there a correlation with where their donations come from?

We the people are the employers of our Congress members. It's time for our employees to start clocking in.

Footnotes:

1. For example, congress is required to disclose financial interests annually under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 and the STOCK Act of 2012.

2. The House last used censure in 2023 against Rep. Paul Gosar. Committee assignment stripping is more common: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was removed from all committees in 2021. Both are tools the House can deploy by simple majority vote.