“I’m No Lady; I’m a Member of Congress” ~Jeannette Rankin

Apparently,

On November 7, 1916 she was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican from Montana, becoming the first female member of Congress. The Nineteenth Amendment, (which gave women the right to vote everywhere in the United States) was not ratified until 1920; therefore, during Rankin’s first term in Congress (1917-1919), many women throughout the country did not have the right to vote, though they did in her home state of Montana.

Jeannette Rankin was a professional lobbyist for the National American Women Suffrage Association and helped Montana women gain the right to vote in 1914. During the election of 1916 Rankin came in second, winning one of Montana’s at-large seats (the election rules are different today). She trailed the front runner, Democratic Representative John Evans by 7,600 votes, but she topped the next candidate – another Democrat – by 6,000 votes. Rankin had two advantages: her reputation as a suffragist and her politically well-connected brother, Wellington, who financed her campaign.

Rankin’s seat was redistricted and in 1918 after serving one term she decided to run for the Senate and lost. In 1940 she ran again for congress from Montana and won. An ardent pacifist, Rankin was the only Member of Congress to vote against U.S. participation in both World War I and World War II. The war resolution in 1941 passed the House 388-1. Rankin said “As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.”

For more information check out the Office of the Clerk.

This post is part of a weekly series on DCRepublican.com, “Strange Congress,” dedicated to educating Americans about the parts of Congress they may not have learned in school.

Free parking: Not only do members of Congress receive parking on Capitol Hill, but they also receive free (prime) private parking spots at the two nearby airport, Reagan National and Dulles airport.

Salary: The current salary for a member of Congress is $174,000. However, Congress has the authority to raise their salary as they wish, without having to hold a vote. It’s also interesting to note that during the great depression, members of Congress voluntarily took a pay cut… I somehow don’t think we’ll see that happen these days.

Perks from Lobbyists: Despite a slew of ethics regulations regarding gifts from lobbyists, Members of Congress are still able to use their lobbyist ties to get into events that regular people simply do not have access to. For example, if a Member of Congress wanted a prime ticket to a sold-out event, he could still get that ticket from lobbyists he’s close with, as long as the face value of the ticket is reimbursed by the Member. However, this money doesn’t have to come from the Member’s pocket, but instead can come from the usually deep campaign account, which usually contains money from lobbyists and their associated PACs.

Days Off: While most Americans get one day off for Memorial Day and sometimes Presidents Day, members of Congress get the entire week off. However, Congress doesn’t like to call these vacation days, but instead call them “District Work Periods,” even though there is nothing requiring them to be in their district during those times. Congress also gets a number of additional recesses, some lasting as long as a month.

Additional perks of being in Congress, all paid for by you, the taxpayer (from NTU):

Comfortable salaries that are often determined through legislative sleight-of-hand. Contrary to the arguments of many Washington “insiders,” the cost of living has rarely eroded the historical value of lawmakers’ pay, which on a constant-dollar basis is hovering near the postwar high.

Pension benefits that are two to three times more generous than those offered in the private sector for similarly-salaried executives. Taxpayers directly cover at least 80 percent of this costly plan. Congressional pensions are also inflation-protected, a feature that fewer than 1 in 10 private plans offer.

Health and life insurance, approximately 3/4 and 1/3 of whose costs, respectively, are subsidized by taxpayers.

Travel to far-flung destinations as well as to home states and districts. Despite recent attempts to toughen gift and travel rules, “junkets” are still readily available prerogatives for many Members.

A wide range of smaller perks that have defied reform efforts, from cut-rate health clubs to fine furnishings.

The franking privilege, which gives lawmakers millions in tax dollars to create a favorable public image. Experts across the political spectrum have labeled the frank as an unfair electioneering tool. In past election cycles, Congressional incumbents have spent as much on franking alone as challengers have spent on their entire campaigns.

An office staff that performs “constituent services” and doles out pork-barrel spending, providing more opportunities for “favors” that can be returned only at election time.

Exemptions and immunities from tax, pension, and other laws that burden private citizens — all crafted by lawmakers themselves.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and I encourage everyone to explore some of the additional perks Congress currently receives, but also examine what bonuses came with the job in previous years.

This post is part of a weekly series on DCRepublican.com, “Strange Congress,” dedicated to educating Americans about the parts of Congress they may not have learned in school. To subscribe to only the Strange Congress feed, click here.

In this image taken moments after the shooting, (from left foreground) House Pages Bill Goodwin, Paul Kanjorski, and Bill Emerson carry a stretcher bearing a wounded Member to a waiting ambulance. Photo from the Office of the Clerk.

On March 1st, 1954 the United States Capitol was under attack and five Members of Congress were shot.

The attackers, Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irving Flores Rodríguez, displayed a Puerto Rican flag before shooting. The four were part of a Puerto Rican nationalist gang that tried to assassinate President Truman in 1950.

They opened fire from the visitor’s gallery of the House of Representatives. After shooting over 30 rounds at 240 Representatives, the four Puerto Ricans wounded five members: Alvin Bentley of Michigan, Ben Jensen of Iowa, Clifford Davis of Tennessee, George Fallon of Maryland, and Kenneth Roberts of Alabama. All five survived.

Future Representatives Bill Emerson of Missouri and Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania were among a group of Pages who helped to evacuate wounded Representative Alvin Bentley on a stretcher.

Currently representing Pennsylvania’s 11th District, Congressman Kanjorski (D) was 16 at the time of the shooting. In his hill office he has a framed newspaper with a picture of him and the other pages assisting the wounded Members of Congress.

In the aftermath of the shooting, the backs of the chairs on the floors of both the House of Representatives and Senate chambers are now bullet proof – and the capitol police threw in some medal detectors too.

Click here to watch a two minute newsreel about the incident.

This post is part of a weekly series on DCRepublican.com, “Strange Congress,” dedicated to educating Americans about the parts of Congress they may not have learned in school. To subscribe to only the Strange Congress feed, click here.

The story starts on May 19th of the same year, when Senator Sumner gave a rousing two-day speech of the floor of the United States Senate where he not only criticized then President Franklin Pierce, but also went even further to single out specific sympathizers of the pro-slavery-driven violence that was occurring in Kansas.

One of the individuals singled out by Senator Sumner was Senator Andrew Pickens Butler, a Democrat from South Carolina and a cousin of Preston Brooks.

Upon hearing of Sumner’s speech, the South Carolina Congressman, complete with his understanding of Code Duello (Southern Code of Honor), and his gutta-percha cane, entered the Chambers of the United States Senate with Congressman Laurence Massillon Keitt, a fellow South Carolina Democrat and Virginia Congressman Henry Alonzo Edmundson (also a Democrat) and approached Sumner.

Upon stating that he had read Sumner’s speech, Brooks began to viciously beat him in the head with his cane until it broke. By the time Brooks was done with his attack, Sumner was left fading in and out of consciousness, which injuries that would keep him out of the Senate for three years.

Click here to view the embedded video.

While punishment was sought against Brooks, the two-thirds vote needed to expel him from House of Representatives couldn’t be reached. Even so, Brooks resigned from Congress on July 15, 1856, but later was quickly re-elected on August 1, 1856, where he served until his death on January 27, 1857.

Despite the physical and emotional trauman faced by Sumner, he returned to the Senate three years later and became a an outspoken leader for the Radical Republicans. Sumner remained in the Senate until his death on March 11, 1864 1874.

For more information on the Preston-Sumner Affair, please click here.

This post is part of a weekly series on DCRepublican.com, “Strange Congress,” dedicated to educating Americans about the parts of Congress they may not have learned in school. To subscribe to only the Strange Congress feed, click here.

Jonathan Cilley

On February 24, 1838, Congressman William Jordan Graves, a Whig from the state of Kentucky, fatally shot Maine Congressman Jonathan Cilley in a duel. Cilley was challenged to the duel by Graves because he claimed that a Virginian was responsible for a newspaper article that charged another Congressman with immortality.

While many demanded that action be taken against Graves, the only punishment he received was by being censured (for more on censuring, see below).

After much heated debate, a bill was passed in the United States Senate by a vote of 34-1 that would ban duels from occurring within the District of Columbia. While this bill failed in the House shortly thereafter, the next year (February 20, 1839), a bill was finally passed through both bodies and became law.

click here for further reading

Note on censuring: While being censured is generally considered a serious action in both the House and Senate, it is contained nowhere in their rules, and isn’t found in the United States Constitution. In reality, from a legal standpoint, being censured is nothing more than a condemnation that goes on the record (a more formal slap on the wrist, if you will).

This post is part of a weekly series on DCRepublican.com, “Strange Congress,” dedicated to educating Americans about the parts of Congress they may not have learned in school. To subscribe to only the Strange Congress feed, click here.