[OC] Visualisieren Sie das Anwesenheitsproblem im Kongress, nachdem der Abgeordnete Granger fünf Monate lang vermisst wurde

Hey there! I don’t normally share my stuff to this sub because, honestly, my visualizations are usually pretty simple. But I think the way I visualized absences for a Congressmember is actually kind of neat, and the sub may appreciate it.

Context: After Rep. Kay Granger went missing for five months and was found in a dementia care unit, I decided to look closely at Congress absences. Congress doesn’t take attendance, so I measured days where a member missed all votes as a proxy. I found some really shocking stuff – like the fact that Rep. Granger didn’t even have the longest absence of the 118th Congress. And about 1 in 12 congress members are absent >10% of the time according to this analysis.

Feel free to read more about this and my full methodology [on my site here](https://www.statswithsasa.com/2024/12/26/congress-attendance/).

Sources: GovTrack (voting data) and BLS (data on average PTO for americans).

Tools: ggplot in R

Fetterman its being a big disappointment, I have so much hope he will deliver. He should retire and go back to Pennsylvania and let Shapiro select somebody who wants to be there serving the voters.

I wonder what the solution to this is. Increase senators’ pay? Institute an age cap for elected officials?

I think we should just have a law (or maybe an amendment so it can’t be easily reversed by the next congress) that says if you miss x number of voting days in a row, or have less than x% attendance (say, 85% for example,) you’re automatically removed from office.

But I guess we’d have to have a way of taking attendance and an enforcement method for that to work, and the people who are _currently in office, wasting taxpayer resources_ would obviously never go for a bill that kills their easy source of money and power.

Any person absent more than 15 days should have their position vacated and a special election called. Just like the rest of us have to deal with.

I wonder if the in-person voting requirement isn’t due for reconsideration. Just let them vote from anywhere and remove the excuse of being physically absent as a reason not to vote.