You Can't Make This Up: Congress Ponders 'Potty Parity' Act

Here's something else to ponder: How about we flush these tools in November? As if we don't have enough problems to deal with, this is the kind of important legislation being taken up in Washington.

A House committee heard testimony Wednesday morning on legislation designed to develop a more equitable sexual balance in the number of toilets in federal buildings.

Nicknamed the Potty Parity Act, the bill would require the number of toilets available for women to equal or exceed the number of toilets and urinals in men's restrooms.

Under the bill sponsored by Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the requirement would apply to federal buildings constructed in the future and current properties that would undergo major renovations.

"I am certain that every woman in this room has frequently experienced the inconvenience, as well as the discomfort, caused by an insufficient number of women's restroom facilities," Towns said to a hearing room almost filled with supporters, mostly women, from his Brooklyn district.

Testimony by the General Services Administration said that since the 1980s, its standards have called for the number of toilets in women's restrooms to equal the number of toilets and urinals in men's rooms.

How about just evening things out in the old buildings? Would anyone care? Would anyone notice?

We have to actually have legislation for this?

Though it's the kind of issue that elicits snickers, potty parity really is a serious matter.

Former District mayor Sharon Pratt told the committee that "the disparity in restrooms is glaring, inconvenient, enormously inefficient and downright unfair."