Getting re-elected, not doing what is best.

"No more than six senators and a handful of House members read beyond the five-page National Intelligence Estimate executive summary." That is from this Washington Post article. This document was an assessment of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction:

In the fall of 2002, as Congress debated waging war in Iraq, copies of
a 92-page assessment of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction sat in two
vaults on Capitol Hill, each protected by armed security guards and available to
any member who showed up in person, without staff.

But only a few ever did. No more than six senators and a
handful of House members read beyond the five-page National Intelligence
Estimate executive summary, according to several congressional aides responsible
for safeguarding the classified material.

The problem:

• The House intelligence committee believed the voluminous House-Senate
report was so important that it temporarily changed its rules to allow all
members of the House to read the classified report. "There weren't a lot of
takers on the 9/11 report," said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), the committee's
vice chairman. Partly, she said, this was because members' personal staffs were
not given access, leaving the hard work to members themselves. "Some didn't want to do the homework," she said.

I for one, would hate to see the members of Congress have to do some research on their own.

Once again they have proven this to me; their only concern is getting re-elected. The American people are of no concern to these politicians. They do what it takes to get re-elected, and nothing else.