Snoopers Tips 1: The U.S. House of Representatives Clerk’s Office: Not Like Our Parents’ “Clerk”

NOTE: This posting is the beginning of a new feature of “They Will Say ANYTHING!” I’m calling it Snoopers Tips because it’s here that you’ll learn how to snoop on our government online, legally, of course. We know they snoop on us, so we need to be well-armed to keep up! With Snoopers Tips I’ll show you where to find government information in all three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Over time, you’ll have a set of bookmarks and blogs that will help you find what you need quickly and efficiently, sometimes accessing important aspects of big issues or Congressional votes that are not covered by the media. So, here’s the inaugural posting. It’ll help you keep up with the House of Representatives in an authoritative and quickly updated way. If you have any suggestions for future topics, just drop me a line at my e-mail address or leave a comment!

Snoopers Tips alert! All snoops on board. Full speed ahead!

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Here’s a clerk who does much much more than simply filing TPS Forms. The Clerk of the House of Representatives manages the day-to-day operations of the House and oversees nine departments that employ more than 270 people. This discussion topic will show you a portion of the riches available at the Clerk’s Office net site. Obviously, I KNOW you can look around at a site as much as you like, but this post is to highlight a couple things: House voting records and the Majority Leader’s weekly House schedule.

Some background: The House Clerk’s Office (HCO), located in the Capitol building, manages numerous functions such as Legislative Computer Systems, the Office of Publication Services, and the (somewhat infamous) House Page Program. Of most importance to folks who want to snoop on the U.S. government, the Clerk coordinates the services of the Bill and Enrolling Clerks, the Journal Clerks, the Daily Digests, and the the Tally Clerks. So, for the House, it’s sort of a one-stop-shop, like a motor that runs the . . . sausage machine we fondly call “law making.” Here’s where official House reporting comes from.

The first stop for us is the home base for the HCO. This is the front door, and once there, you’ll see three prominently placed columns: “Official House Information”; “House Floor Proceedings”; and “What’s New in the House.” Below those columns you’ll spy other items, including a little spot called

**** Start reading again below this line ****

“Quick Links” that is a great portal into nearly everything you’ll need to follow legislation.

The two we’ll talk about today are (1) House Floor Proceedings, and (2) the House Majority Leader’s Weekly Schedule page.

1. House Floor Proceedings.

The middle column on the homepage. By the time you read this the hyperlink on the February calendar will be under the number 3, as in February 3rd (DUH! Hope I’m not going too fast for you . . .) Click on it and it’ll take you to a page with this heading:

While there, you’ll see what’s presently happened in the House. Note that, on this Tuesday, the House doesn’t convene until 12:30 p.m. (nice hours, eh?). BUT NEXT we’ll learn that a number of votes are planned for Tuesday, and how to find out the remaining portion of the House’s schedule for this week.

Note next the nifty little drop down menu at the top of the page: “Use the drop down menu to view Floor proceedings for the last 7 legislative days.” Go ahead and click on the date January 22nd and have a look around. You’ll find that the House took up a number of measures of great national importance, like “commending the University of Florida Gators for winning the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game,” and House Resolution (H. Res.) 56, “expressing support for designation of the week of February 2 through February 6, 2009, as ‘National School Counseling Week'” Have a great National School Counseling Week, by the way!!

But if you snoop enough, at 1:22 p.m. you’ll find a rather important, although meaningless, vote on House Joint Resolution (H.J.Res.) 2 . I know, I know. How can a vote be both important and meaningless? Well, I support the Washington Redskins so I can handle these seemingly impossible situations . . .

Here’s what I mean: The vote on H.J.Res. 2 was to DISapprove obligating an additional $300 Billion or thereabouts for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA). ** While there CLICK ON the link “H.J.Res. 2” to get complete information on the proposal.** Why was the House vote meaningless, legislatively, at least? That’s because the Senate had previously voted to APPROVE the additional money for the EESA, and the law requires that only ONE of the two Congressional chambers approve. The House vote, therefore, was a symbolic one.

After looking at the legislative information, go back to the House Clerk page listing January 22nd’s activities (you may have to use the drop down menu again). Now, let’s see the actual roll call vote on H.J. Res. 2 by ** CLICKING ON the “(Roll no. 27)” link.** Note that the vote included almost 40% of House Democrats. This “meaningless” vote, therefore, has quite a bit of meaning. It may signal that the support for the financial sector bail out or rescue is becoming thinner. So, looking at the actual votes gives you information that is often unreported and often very intriguing, as in this case. See how your own Member of Congress (M.C.) voted.

Use the drop down menu to have a look around at other legislative days, it’ll either peak your interest or cause you to scream in pain.

2. The House Majority Leader’s Weekly Schedule page.

What’s coming up in the rest of the week for the House? It’s nice to be able to find out what already happened, but what about what will happen? Here’s where you can use the Office of the House Majority Leader to find the weekly schedule, called The Weekly Leader. Once there just ** CLICK ON “THE WEEK OF MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2009” **

You’ll see that on Tuesday, Feb. 3rd the House plans votes on a number of bills via “suspensions.” [Suspensions of the rules are explained here.]

After reading about suspensions, go back to the Weekly Leader and note that important and controversial work is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 5th.: The DTV Delay Act, and The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, the controversial SCHIP. Note that when there you can click on a variety of links to check out these proposals as much as you like. If you’re really looking to draw attention to yourself, go ahead and print out the Weekly Leader and post it prominently. In idle moments you can throw darts at it . . .

That’s it for this first of what I plan as a regular series of Snoopers Tips. As we go along, if you’re really enthusiastic, I’d suggest putting together a folder or two in your bookmarks listing. There, you can accumulate over time a powerful list of links to the best and official governmental sites. Also, if you like, print out the blog content and keep it in a folder or a potted plant. Finally, as a general rule, if anything I write is unclear or just plain deranged, please make a comment and I’ll clean up any mistakes or derangements.