Congress Spends Its Time Naming Post Offices

You'd imagine they had something better to do
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 24, 2010 11:21 AM CDT
Congress Spends Its Time Naming Post Offices
Trucks are seen parked at a US Postal facility in New Jersey, in this file photo.   (Getty Images)

You might think the most pressing issue facing Congress is the economy, or terrorism, or global warming, or immigration. But you’d be wrong. “Nope, the biggest problem facing America today is … the desperate lack of appropriately named post offices,” writes John Merline for AolNews. He combed through all 237 pieces of legislation Congress passed this year and found that the biggest category of legislation by far was naming post offices, and other government buildings.

Over the past 18 months, a whopping 27% of the laws signed by Barack Obama have involved naming post offices. Toss in commemorations “and other such frivolous bills” and that jumps to 33%. (You can see his full chart here.) This is an old trend, but it’s especially ridiculous now, when the Postal Service is actually trying to close post offices to save money, and Congress has more important things to do, like fostering job growth. “Creating full employment for Postal Service sign-makers just doesn’t cut it.” (More US Postal Service stories.)

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