Congress spends too much time renaming post offices

By all accounts, Lt. Col. James Megellas is an American hero. A Wisconsin hero, in fact. Megellas is from Fond du Lac, and is one of the nation’s most revered soldiers. He served during World War II with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and fought bravely at the Battle of the Bulge, and elsewhere. But that doesn’t mean that he should have a post office named after him. U.S. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin authored legislation renaming the Fond du Lac Post office for Megellas. That legislation became law following a vote in Congress last week. It would be fine that Congress recognize local or national people of some renown. The problem is that Congress spends so much time doing it. As dysfuctional as the U.S. Congress is, it is really good at naming post offices after people. The 11th Congress passed 383 bills into law during its session. 70 of those were to name post offices. The 112th Congress passed 240 total statutes, with 46 of them naming post offices. Normally it is a matter of routine, with such legislation often passing unanimously. That was not the case earlier this month, when Wisconsin Congressman Glenn Grothman leading the fight against naming a post office after poet Maya Angelou, who he considered to be too liberal. All this takes too much time, and makes us wonder, doesn’t Congress have anything better to do? They shouldn’t spend 20% of their time renaming post offices, no matter how much that honor may be deserved.