“Congress has some of the lowest approval ratings in recent history, but it hasn’t stopped House lawmakers from disproportionately loving their jobs,” Roll Call reports.

According to a new Congressional Management Foundation study, 89% of House members said they felt satisfaction that they were “performing an important public service.” When asked whether they were satisfied with their understanding of how their “job contributes to society as a whole,” 90% answered in the affirmative. In response to the statement, “my work gives me a sense of personal accomplishment,” 95% agreed.

Conservative House lawmakers are threatening to torpedo bills that violate the so-called Hastert Rule, according to The Hill.

“The warning, delivered Monday by two right-leaning rank-and-file members, puts more pressure on Speaker Boehner (R-OH) and his lieutenants to only pass bills that attract the support of ‘the majority of the majority.'”

Politico: “If it seems like inside-the-Beltway legislative wonkery, it’s not. Voting against the rule, as it’s called, is a loud statement that members disagree with leadership’s priorities. And since Democrats almost always oppose the rule — the measure that sets parameters for floor debate — GOP leadership has to have 218 Republicans on board to get it passed. If a rule fails, the House cannot debate the underlying bill, and the legislative process is ground to a halt.”

Out of power and unable to control the agenda in the lower legislative chamber, a new Smart Politics report finds that House Democrats are utilizing the press release in greater numbers than Republicans to get their message out to the public.
 
Key findings: Of the more than 6,200 press releases issued during the first two months of the 113th Congress finds that Democratic lawmakers have issued statements at a 31.5% higher rate per member than Republicans, and hold 11 of the Top 15 spots.

“Washington is dysfunctional, but it’s dysfunctional in a dysfunctional way. Members of Congress and the administration agree on too much. We agree on spending money we don’t have. We agree on not over sighting the programs that should be over sighted. We agree on continuing to spend money on programs that don’t work or are ineffective. Basically we agree on too much.”

— Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), in an interview with Meet the Press.