Most congressmen get reelected because they never do anything in Washington besides warm a chair in the Capitol and vote the party line on everything that comes along, and the only time you ever hear from them is when they are-
A) Running for election/reelection. or-
B) Getting their name in the news by sitting on BS committees like this.
So people go into the booth and say "Hmm, I've never heard of that guy, but this one is running for REelection, and his name was all over the news last year for some committee or something he was on, so he must be doing a good job..." and they vote for more of the same.
I personally (and I'm a diehard baseball nut) am so Fn sick of hearing about this that I have gotten to the point where I change the station (I listen to xm175, the MLB channel on the way too and from work) as soon as I hear the words "steroids", "HGH", "Clemens", "Petite", "MacNamee", "Congress", or "performance enhancing drugs". I was actually reaching for the phone to call their studio phone number and tell them exactly what I (and every other baseball fan I know) think of this BS before I decided against it and just switched stations for the rest of the drive.
This is nothing but a bunch of congressmen with nothing better to do (read- no brains in their heads or leadership skills to be trusted with something worthwhile) seeing a chance to get their names on the news and in the papers. Those of us who pay enough attention to be ticked about it are in the vast minority unfortunately- the rest of the Sheeple in the US will never pull their heads far enough out of their rectums to do anything about it.