hard at work?

NPR's "Day to Day" ran a segment today interviewing USA Today correspondent Kathy Keily, who investigated the current congressional work schedule. According to Keily, the US House of Representatives has been in session a total of 46 hours since the beginning of the year, typically only staying in Washington Tuesday afternoon through Thursday. Nice work if you can get it! I know it's an election year, but shouldn't they actually have been in session for more than a week by now? They are on pace, Keily says, to surpass in sloth the "Do-Nothing Congress" Truman used as a counterpoint to his campaign in 1948. What is it again that Congress is the opposite of? ;)

Seriously, those of you who know more about politics than I, feel free to explain if this is, or isn’t, as bad as it sounds. From a largely apolitical view, it sounds pretty lazy.