Remember when House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said in January that he had “bad news” for members of Congress - that they’d have to put more hours in at the office?

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, the Maryland Democrat who will become House majority leader and is writing the schedule for the next Congress, said members should expect longer hours than the brief week they have grown accustomed to.

“I have bad news for you,” Hoyer told reporters. “Those trips you had planned in January, forget ‘em. We will be working almost every day in January, starting with the 4th.”
[…]
He said members need to spend more time in the Capitol to pass laws and oversee federal agencies.

Well that didn’t last long.

But 10 months into the session, with their legislative agenda often in gridlock with the Bush administration and a big election year looming, the Democrats are now planning a lighter schedule when the 110th Congress begins its second year in mid-January.

The House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, told fellow Democrats this week that the House would not be in session next year on Fridays, except in June for work on appropriations bills.

Maybe they figure fewer days at work will prevent their approval rating from sinking lower.