Congress: Fresh Blood Surging, Institutional Memory Waning

Aaron Blake writes at The Washington Post:

You can say a lot of things about the U.S. Congress. One thing you can't really say, though, is that they've been in Washington way too long.

Come January, nearly half of Congress (48.8 percent) will have been in office for four years or less -- i.e. elected in 2010 or later. That includes 49.7 percent of the House and 45 percent of the Senate -- assuming GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy defeats Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu in the Louisiana runoff Dec. 6.

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In addition, the average length of service in the new House will be less than nine years (8.8 years, to be exact) -- continuing a downward trend after reaching a high of more than 10 years last decade and in the early 1990s. (8.8 years is still on the high end historically, but it's one of the lowest numbers in the last two decades.)

Some lawmakers want to take up tax reform.  But the new Congress will have little institutional memory of the last major tax overhaul, in 1986.  Only a dozen House members of the 114th Congress served in the 99th.  Seventeen senators served in the 113th:  five were in the Senate at the time, twelve in the House.

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House members of the 114th Congress who served in the 99th:

Republicans Don Young (AK) F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (WI) Harold Rogers (KY) Christopher H. Smith (NJ) Joe L. Barton (TX)

Democrats John Conyers Jr (MI) Charles B. Rangel (NY) Steny H. Hoyer (MD) Marcy Kaptur (OH) Sander M. Levin (MI) Peter J. Visclosky (IN) Jim Cooper (TN)

Senators of the 114th Congress who served in Senate during the 99th Congress:

Republicans	Democrats
Orrin G. Hatch (UT) Thad Cochran (MS) Charles E. Grassley (IA) Mitch McConnell (KY)	Patrick J. Leahy (VT)

Senators who were serving in the House at the time:

John McCain (AZ) Pat Roberts (KS) Richard C. Shelby (AL) Dan Coats (IN)

Barbara Boxer (CA) Thomas R. Carper (DE) Barbara Mikulski (MD) Bill Nelson (FL) Harry Reid (NV) Charles Schumer (NY) Ron Wyden (OR) Edward J. Markey (MA)