How Lame
Posted in Congress by Ken Thomas
Matthew Spalding notes how previous lame-duck Congresses have conducted themselves and singles out the current one for its extremist behavior. The Senate has never ratified a treaty in a lame-duck session.
12:22 AM / December 17, 2010
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Of course the Lame Duck sessions run counter to the spirit of representative government. Say thanks for this situation to the 20th Amendment which sets the inauguration date for Senate & House members as the 3rd of January.
Here's another chance for a positive amendment to the Constitution, moving up the Congressional inauguration date to late November and asserting that there shall be no more lame duck sessions.
Of course the Dems are abusing their power -- why change now? But they will regret doing it soon enough. People aren't blind (at least, not the people who tend to vote), and I predict that we'll have an all-Republican Federal government in the next few years. Let's just hope they don't blow it as badly as the Dems have.
I count over a dozen treaties ratified in "lame duck" sessions since 1970.
The Convention on the Prevention of Bacteriological and Toxic Weapons was ratified on Dec. 16, 1974, for example.
https://thomas.loc.gov/home/treaties/treaties.html
Starting the clock, waiting for the correction from Mr. Thomas.