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Congressman Massie’s 500-Yard Run That is Driving Congress Crazy
Recently, Congressman Thomas Massie came to speak at the University of Cincinnati. He was the keynote speaker for the Young American for Liberty’s Ohio State conference. Massie gave an eye opening speech on how the House of Representatives works. One of his most revealing stories centered around his 500-yard run that he frequently makes from his office to the House floor.
For those that are not aware, Congress passes a lot of bills! In the 112th Congress, there were 561 bills that passed in one year. If we do some basic math, Congress is in session for 132 days and in that time they pass 561 bills, meaning they are passing roughly 4 bills a day. An example of one of these bills is the 600-page Highway Flood Student Loan bill that was given to the Senate the day of the vote. On top of that the bill had 23 additional amendments.
Congressman Massie explained that voice votes are frequently used to pass motions, amendments, and resolutions. There are several problems with taking voice votes on important issues. First, the voice vote does not hold politicians accountable for their votes. Many of our congressmen that we send to Washington are voting against what they ran on, but we do not have a record of all of these votes. The second problem with this method of voting is that it is solely at the discretion of the House Chair. Under normal circumstances, this would be Speaker of the House John Boehner. He is the only one that is allowed to interpret the vote.
The House is supposed to have something called a “quorum” to have a vote. A quorum is defined by at least 218 congressmen. The way that Boehner decides if there is a quorum is by squinting his eyes and declaring he thinks he sees 218 people. Congressman Massie said sometimes there will only be ten congressmen present.
There are about 500 yards in between Massie’s office and the house floor. When the speaker starts to do voice votes when no one is in the house, Congressman Massie will sprint from his office to the House floor and demand a recorded vote. When Congress has a recorded vote, it forces there to be a quorum and politicians to be held accountable for their votes. Massie said that he had done this a lot since he was elected in 2012.
One of the most memorable votes was in December of 2014. The speaker indicated that the Congress was over, so all the congressmen left. It just so happened that Massie’s flight had been canceled, when he went back to his office he saw that the house was passing bills with no one present. He made the 500-yard dash, and when he got onto the house floor they were conducting a voice vote on whether or not to allow President Obama to arm Ukraine’s military. They recessed before he could make a point that a quorum was not present. The next day, after he left, they passed more bills by voice before adjourning the 113th congress.
This is clearly something that Congress should debate since the results could lead to a global conflict. We have seen how joining into global conflicts has unintended consequences. For example, Hillary’s War in Libya, and the McCain/Graham’s support for arming ISIS in Syria. These should be heavily debated and open to the public.
President Barack Obama has not yet publically sent arms to Ukraine. On March 24, 2015 the House tried to do another vocal vote to pass a resolution that encouraged Obama to send the arms. Congressman Massie demanded that this be a recorded vote. The resolution passed 348-48. Now we have on record which congressmen voted to send American tax dollars to Ukraine.
Whether you agree with the vote or not, the point is that Congressman Massie is making a difference. Every election year we hear politicians say Washington is broken and how they are going to fix it. Then we elect them, and they make the problem worse. Congressman Massie ran on saying that the system is broken, but unlike his peers, he is actually defending our rights and working to fix Washington.
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17 CommentsThoughts? Comments?
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Blue Square April 23, 2015 , 2:24 pm Vote0
Ha! That’s awesome!
Reagan Rothbard April 23, 2015 , 3:57 pm Vote0
You couldn’t make this stuff up!
Gabe Higgins April 23, 2015 , 7:36 pm Vote0
This is very inspiring to hear a young Congressman being vigilant like this. In my dreams, I wish for an Amash/Massie ticket, Ron Paul as Secretary of State, Judge Nap for Supreme Court. Serve this country with a healthy dose of freedom not seen since 1776.
Lina Bryce April 23, 2015 , 8:04 pm Vote1
I shared this everywhere, Michael! I saw that you said that there was nothing written and so you wrote one yourself. THAT is exactly how we need to be. Create. Discover. Share. Well done, sir!
Toni Sopocko April 23, 2015 , 10:05 pm Vote2
Also shared. Amazing that nobody has ever exposed this stuff.
Grant Brown April 24, 2015 , 3:49 pm Vote1
This is the kind of story I like to read. Problem, solution. Bam. Of course there’s much more to be done but it’s nice to see that somebody is doing something.
Joe K. April 25, 2015 , 12:58 am Vote0
Hearing about someone that wants to make a difference is very good. However, this system is completely broken. There is no way to “reform” or fix it. It is one that should be abolished! I have been trying to promote this idea for a long time. It is a long term idea because even the states are too large and bloated, but abolishing the Washington machine would be the first step and I hope we can get there.
Human scale! Think about that term. There is no way you can properly represented in Washington or even the states. The “representatives” are so far removed from what we experience in our communities that they cannot possibly represent us or represent a solution to the problems caused by government (the state). They will only make it worse by offering more solutions that create more problems. The solution to the problems the state creates will only be solved when people are willing to look each other in the eye, extend a hand, and work out their issues without using the force of government to force their ideas or “one up” those they disagree with this. This will only happen when the state is made impotent.
Conclusion: the only way this can happen is if the state goes completely bust. Therefore, I am praying for the state go bust, no matter what difficulty will come, as neighbors and communities we can find our way and work out our differences without the state!
Tyrone Johnson April 25, 2015 , 9:33 pm Vote0
It sounds like he is unable to make that much of a difference, even dashing over to demand a quorum from time to time. As the essay points out, he left town, more voice votes took place, and he could do nothing about it, because he cannot control whether there is an actual adjournment or a fake one, and cannot be there all the time. I guess he could move his office onto the House floor, but he doesn’t. All this, to me, shows that the system isn’t broken. It is operating as designed, for those who are in power.
Wesley Bruce April 27, 2015 , 1:23 am Vote0
I know two Australian politicians that have broken legs running down stairs in state parliaments raising to vote. Both are facebook friends. I also know of one case where to politicians grabbed an elderly politician, of the opposing party and raced down the corridor with him supported between them. It cost them the vote. It is theoretically possible to vote from the office using the bitcoin block chain but some measure would be needed to make sure they know what they’re voting for. I.e. the parliamentary whip needed to be online or on the secure private server too. However politicians have shown up panting and voted wrong as a result.
Wesley Bruce April 27, 2015 , 2:50 am Vote0
When new parliament was designed in Australia they made the corridors double the width and no stairs and put the older politicians closest to the chambers and the ex-army guys at the far end of the corridor. People including the PM have still been caught with the doors closed in his face. He’s a firefighter so he’s quite used to running when all the bells and sirens go. A westminster system has two to four times as many votes per day than the the US system. Some pollies sit in the parliament working from their laptop to avoid the run and some have been known to doze off.
Wesley Bruce April 27, 2015 , 3:19 am Vote0
In Australia and other westminster systems the parliamentary secretary, not a politician, decides quorum and they’re ferocious about it refusing to document the vote if the numbers are not there. However a bare quorum is common. There is another safeguard, the Queen reads all the bills and has sent some back when there are errors, she’s been called the proof reader in chief. She reads the bills for 20+ parliaments. Needless to say they are shorter than American bills by about 3 orders of magnitude. Its really only the US congress that makes parliamentary democracy look bad in the english speaking world.
Wesley Bruce April 27, 2015 , 3:31 am Vote1
Blockchain voting could be done in parliaments and would involve three steps. A message flags the vote, the written arguments for and against [with a legal word limit of 50 words] this message also contains three yea, nay, abstention addresses for the vote to be cast to. Then a special members votecoin account is updated with one static value. The member pays the vote to the appropriate account.
The votes are tallied and the result logged in a third email. No one needs leave their office or home unless they want to debate on camera and they could do that by skype.
The block chain system logs the votes and there is no way to pay extra votecoins into a members account or change the recorded vote published.
Ken Jons-un May 5, 2015 , 6:20 pm Vote0
I’m with Tyrone. I suspect all Massie has said is true and largely it points out how much of an absolute scam is going on.
It’d be simple to fix, as Wesley has pointed out above, anyone could do a proper count and tell if there is a quorum in a minute or two. Even if you were in the audience to point it out they wouldn’t recognize you to speak. Massie is just one out of 500, without twenty more Massies things will not change much. We can hope it happens but still some permanent parliamentary rule is the right move – don’t hold your breath on that one.
E. Lee MacFall May 5, 2015 , 8:06 pm Vote2
Sometimes, despite myself, I just can’t help not loathing politicians.
Jimmy Riedelsperger May 5, 2015 , 10:02 pm
@eleemacfall “On election day the voter is in the same position as someone who opens up his septic tank, gazes at the larger pieces that have floated to the surface, and announces, “I like this one better than that one.”” ~Robert Higgs
Blue Square May 6, 2015 , 2:54 pm Vote1
@eleemacfall Humans, man, we all are both condemnable and praiseworthy.
Blue Square April 14, 2016 , 2:22 pm Vote2
My fellow writers, check out the great title and image on this very successful article (currently sitting at 77,000 views). It has physical action, a big name, and conflict.
What more could you ask for?