There are 432 members in the 111th U.S. House of Representatives. More than 46% have held office for at least 10 years.

• 3 have been members of Congress for 40 years or more (Dingell, Conyers, Obey)
• 19 have been members of Congress for 30 years or more.
• 60 have been members of Congress for 20 years or more.
• 203 have been members of Congress for 10 years or more.

There are 53 ranking positions in the House. With one exception, none of these positions is held by any of the 193 members sworn in since 2001.

In Congress: Tenure = Seniority = Power. In the absence of a meritocracy, the culture is structured, rigid. Seniors become complacent; juniors subjugated and exploited. This is a recipe for status quo in a time when visionary, innovative, and effective legislative solutions are imperative.

“In his monumental research, A Study of History, Arnold Toynbee has painstakingly traced the rise and fall of 21 civilizations. All of these once great cultures…have collapsed or stagnated. Toynbee argued that their declines came not from natural disasters or barbarian invasions, but from internal rigidity, complacency, and oppression. He saw that some of the very institutions and practices responsible for ascendance ultimately evolved into the perverse idolatries that caused decline.”*

End Congressional bonuses. Vote out incumbents.

*“The Icarus Paradox: How Exceptional Companies Bring About Their Own Downfall,” by Danny Miller, excerpted in Business Horizons.