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• Friday, December 23, 2005 10:23 AM

  How to turn five weeks into three days?

  A previous letter writer says the late start for the House is January 31. Can this be possible, or even legal? Just for little old Tom DELAY?

  "The 20th Amendment to the Constitution, proclaimed as ratified February 6, 1933, established noon on the 3rd day of January as the meeting date, unless the Congress by law appoints a different day" (qtd from the official site of the U.S. House). It obviously can't be December 31, or they wouldn't get New Year's day off, but postponing the opening of the spring session by nearly a month, even if they are allowed to make a new law to change it, is outrageous.

  Moreover, extending the Patriot Act by five weeks, when it was scheduled to expire at December 31, would push the new expiration date to Feb. 3, 2006, five weeks from Dec. 31. If Jan. 31 is correct for the opening day, that gives the House THREE whole days to agree to whatever the Senate has done with the Patriot Act by then.

  I hope the Senate is coming back in a more timely fashion, and I hope the Senate establishes the nation's priorities a little more sanely than the obviously crooked House: hearings on Bush breaking the law first, please, and then hearings on the Alito nomination, if they still apply. Nothing less will do.

  —Marty Carpenter Read Marty Carpenter's other letters
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