Photo: Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) and son.
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I’m 64?
— Lennon/McCartney
I don’t often read the Latin Times, located at https://www.latintimes.com
But this July 14 article by Pedro Camacho caught my eye:
Democratic Lawmaker Vows to Push for Mental Fitness Oversight in Congress With Cognitive Tests
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) is calling on Congress to confront a growing concern: cognitive decline among elected officials…
Bless her heart for trying. Of course, she’s a Democrat, so getting an amendment added to any legislation in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives is like pulling teeth. Actually, it’s harder than pulling teeth. You can, in fact, pull teeth when they need to be pulled. But for a Democrat to get an amendment added to House legislation, no matter how reasonable, is well nigh impossible.
And we have to admit, no matter where we stand politically — left, center or right — there are old men in Congress who have no business being there.
And old women too, for that matter.
Congress isn’t getting any younger. In fact, with an average member age of 59 years old, the 119th Congress is the third oldest since 1789, according to an NBC News analysis of congressional membership and birth-date data. The average age in the Senate is even worse: 64 years old. Half the Senators are older than that Beatles song, “When I’m 64”.
Not that I have anything against old men and old women. They can sit on their porches and discuss politics until the cows come home, for all I care, but they don’t belong in government, making life miserable for the rest of us.
Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has a simple concern that we all share: ‘cognitive decline’.
In a failed amendment to a House appropriations bill, Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez proposed that the Office of Congressional Conduct develop standards to evaluate whether lawmakers are suffering from “significant, irreversible cognitive impairment” and unable to perform their duties. Because, if they are suffering, we are suffering more.
As we all know, humans typically get smarter as they get older, until they don’t — and then the brain shifts into reverse gear.
The problem seems to be even worse when the humans have spent any length of time in the federal government, as was made frighteningly clear during the Trump-Biden debate in June 2024.
Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez’s comments come amid growing scrutiny regarding aging lawmakers and high-profile instances of decline, such as the late Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and former Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who reportedly spent the final months of her term in a care facility.
‘Cognitive decline’ is not the same thing as ‘stupidity’ — another problem plaguing the federal government, but one that was not addressed by the Congresswoman’s amendment.
Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez shared her perspective in an interview:
“I have rules up, down, and sideways about what kind of hat I can accept as a gift, but these bigger questions about whether or not an office is being run by the person who’s elected or their staff has not been addressed in the way that it needs to be, and, you know, there are a very few number of offices where this is called into question, but I would argue that the failure to address this and to reflect the experience of everybody who owns a farm and has to have these discussions in advance about … who’s driving the bus when, we need to have those in Congress.”
I was a little confused about somebody owning a farm, but also being a bus driver.
But I think the rest of what Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez says hits the nail on the head, in a roundabout manner. We just need to know who’s driving the bus.
I would not, however, want to see a similar system applied to journalists. Even if no one really listens to us.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.