Congressional Hearings on USPTO Telework: Farce or Travesty?

A joint hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony this week regarding telework at the USPTO (story here).

I have no doubt that some examiners are gaming the system.  It has always been thus.  

That said, here's an interesting fact:  in 2013, House members drew a salary of $174,000. Not bad, considering the median household income in 2013 was right around $52K.  But in 2013 the House was in session for 113 days.  That works out to an annual salary, for a 50-week year of five-day work weeks, of just under $385,000.  

But who knows how much of that time they actually spent on the people's business?  Fact is, nobody is keeping track of the hours that our representatives actually work.  They work for US, the taxpayers. How are we supposed to know if we're getting the work that we're paying for?  And I mean working on the stuff we send them to Washington to do, not working on raising money so they can get re-elected.  They can do that on their own time.  

So I have a suggestion for the House: no more hearings about patent examiners' work habits until representatives are willing to be accountable to us for their own work habits.