A House divided
Recently, the House took time out of its busy schedule fighting two wars and dealing with the economic crisis to discuss a matter of utmost importance. The proposed legislation- H.R. 390- would ban a game from referring to itself as the national championship, unless it’s the result of a playoff system.
Georgia Democratic Rep. John Barrow said “no,” in the voice vote held in the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee’s commerce, trade and consumer protection subcommittee.
The Bowl Championship Series director Bill Hancock said, “With all the serious matters facing our country, surely Congress has more important issues than spending taxpayer money to dictate how college football is played.” Although Hancock may have an ulterior motive in keeping Congress out of the affairs of the BCS, he does have a very valid point.
In high school, most American students learn the basics of how Congress, divided into the House and Senate, works. The checks and balance system, although extremely helpful in keeping sole power of lawmaking out of a singular sect, makes passing important laws that actually have a great effect on the lives of US citizens very difficult.
Seeing that Congress only works for part of the year, holding up valuable time to discuss the workings of college football seems a waste of taxpayer resources.
Congress has also passed resolutions honoring country music, boating and Confucius this year.
While the Senate is debating and passing bills that will affect college students as they pay off student loans and how colleges will be graded on federal funding losses due to defaults, not to mention the healthcare debacle, the House spends more time than it should on trivial resolution after trivial resolution.
As the war in Iraq comes to a slow close and a new battlefront in Afghanistan opens, sending tens of thousands more soldiers into the field, football seems like a small issue.
A new and seemingly hopeless situation occurs every month as hundreds of service men and women return to find that they no longer have a home or adequate health care.
With so many other serious problems that fall under the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee, why are they focusing on football?
