During an interview on NPR on February 12, Rick Nolan (D, Minnesota) said:
"My first term [in 1975], we worked 48 out of 52 weeks. If you look at the schedule for the coming year, Congress is scheduled to work 32 out of 52 weeks. Our weeks were 4 & 5 days, and we worked all day. Now, a 'day' is quite different. On Monday or Tuesday you go in at 6:00 in the evening for scheduled votes. What you don't finish that evening, you do the next day. We were meeting in committees every day, getting to know one another and in the process, developing a measure of respect for one another and in the process, learning where where the opportunities for cooperation, collaboration existed."
Congress (both houses) need to be made to focus more on working for American and less on working for reelection.