By KASIE HUNT, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 12, 6:19 PM ET
WASHINGTON - The clock is ticking for House Democrats, but it's hard to tell what time it is.
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On Friday, for example, the House was in session for a little more than eight hours. Only five of them, however, ticked off on new Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record)'s 100-hour clock for quickly passing a six-bill agenda that Democrats promised voters last fall.
With passage of a bill to make the government negotiate for lower Medicare prescription drug prices, Pelosi, D-Calif., is two-thirds of the way done in under a quarter of the allotted hours, according to her count.
That's because just as the official clock for a basketball or football game stops for time-outs and commercial breaks, Democrats aren't counting the minutes spent on business unrelated to those six designated bills.
So while the House had been in session for nearly 56 hours since the 110th Congress was sworn in Jan. 4, the clock on Pelosi's Web site suggested that less than half that time 23 hours, 34 minutes had elapsed by the close of business Friday.
"We're just counting the legislative hours," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill explained.
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