Congress Too Busy To Honor Athletic Teams Now?

Is Congress too busy to honor Gamecocks?

Accolades for national sports titles can’t get passed

Written by JAMES ROSEN

Posted on 07.27.10


Gerry Melendez/The State

USC players dog pile after their win over UCLA during game two of the 2010 College World Series finals between South Carolina and UCLA at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb, Tuesday, June 29, 2010.


WASHINGTON — Congress has long bickered over war, taxes, energy and the deficit.

Now, Gamecock baseball can be added to that list.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is steamed that a resolution he introduced June 30 praising the University of South Carolina for capturing the 2010 College World Series is stuck in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“It’s a sad day when the Senate can no longer even come together for this purposes,” Graham told McClatchy. “Is it any wonder why the public has such a dim view of the way Congress is operating?”

Only 11 percent of Americans expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in Congress in a Gallup poll released last Thursday.

“It’s one thing to not be able to do the big things which are hard, like reforming Social Security,” Graham said. “But it’s quite another to not be able to do the simple, appropriate and easy things like recognizing a team for winning a national championship.”

The once-sacred resolutions honoring hometown squads or individuals sailed through Congress for years with nary a discordant note or vote – but no more.

A small but growing number of lawmakers say successful athletes get lots of accolades – and that bills celebrating them waste precious time in Congress.

“We need to raise the bar and start doing serious work around here,” U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said last week during a contentious House floor debate on two commemorative sports measures. “I don’t care if it’s a Democrat (who sponsors such legislation). I don’t care if it’s a Republican. If it’s in the world of sports, they get enough recognition.”

Lawmakers last week approved a measure from U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., honoring the Gamecocks’ recent baseball title – but only after a nasty floor fight.

The Gamecocks resolution was debated in tandem with legislation noting the 142nd anniversary of the Saratoga Race Course, which New York lawmakers proudly noted, makes it the nation’s oldest horse-racing venue.

Chaffetz, serving in his first term in Congress, branded such measures frivolous.

“We’ve got important business,” he said “We have troops that are in harm’s way. We have not brought up a budget resolution to discuss the outrageous debt and deficit that we’re suffering through.”

Beyond sports teams, individual champions are also caught in the crossfire.

Graham can’t persuade his colleagues to take up his bill giving a Senate shout-out to South Carolina native golfer Lucas Glover for winning the 2009 U.S. Open.

Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., introduced a measure last December congratulating Jimmie Johnson for winning the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup. The bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has yet to take it up.

No one will say why the Senate sports measures are stuck – beyond playing the partisan blame game.

Among dozens of sports measures on hold are resolutions by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., commemorating the University of Alabama for nabbing the 2009 college football title, and by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., honoring Louisiana State University for its 2009 baseball championship.

“The senator is disappointed that partisan bickering has caused something so non-controversial to stall,” said Aaron Saunders, a spokesman for Landrieu.

When Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., introduced a bill April 22, 2009 honoring the University of North Carolina for winning the men’s basketball championship, the Senate passed it the same day with a unanimous voice vote.

Now, though, Burr has been stymied in his bid to congratulate the Duke Blue Devils for their 2010 men’s basketball title.

So toxic is the mood in Congress, Burr declined to comment on his current Blue Devils legislation. Shelby also ignored repeated requests for comment.

Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, a non-voting member of Congress who represents the District of Columbia, said she doesn’t buy the argument that Congress is too busy sifting through weighty matters to handle pats on the back for athletic achievements.

Noting that the Saratoga racetrack bill was sponsored by a New York Democrat, Rep. Scott Murphy, Norton challenged Chaffetz to oppose Wilson’s bill congratulating the Gamecocks. Chaffetz, a former placekicker on Brigham Young University’s football team, did just that. But the bill passed anyway by a vote of 400-6.