Worst Senate Subcommittee of the Year

In a year that saw several major lapses in Merchant Marine protocol & oversight, inter-coastal freight movement efficiency and cruise ship safety, I nominate the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure Safety and Security as the Worst Senate Subcommittee of 2008.

It was not an easy decision. Considering the despicable Subcommittee on Higher Education Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness, the underachieving Subcommittee on Rural Revitalization Conservation Forestry and Credit and the perennially lame House Roles and Missions Panel, I certainly had the luxury of choice.

However, none of the above teams demonstrated such lack of energy, vision and foresight, not to mention some of the very worst catering, as the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure Safety and Security. Time after time, panel after panel, committee members (like Sen. Byron L. Dorgan) consistently failed to appear for hearings on such subjects as (a) Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety, and Transportation of Household Goods, (b) Fraudulent Practices in the Oceanic Moving Industry, and (c) Couples Parasailing.

Chairman Frank Lautenberg and Ranking Republican Gordon Smith, you should be ashamed of yourselves for repeatedly yawning, texting and staring out the window during testimony by Mr. Kendall Carver, President of the International Cruise Victims Association, in addition to proposals by Administrator Paul Brubaker of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Research and Innovative Technology Administration to streamline coastal freight procedures in the Virgin Islands.

Citizens of America, with 2009 coming fast upon us, we can only hope Senate panels like the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure Safety and Security wake up and get cracking before it's too late.

B. Brandon Barker can also be found here.

SEE ALSO:
Worst Pundit of the Year
Worst Senate Subcommittee of the Year
Whiner of the Year
Who Time Didn't Consider