Inside D.C.

The summer schedule

It’s the last day of the congressional “spring break,” and Congress returns Monday/Tuesday for more shenanigans. Given it’s an election year, with a lame duck President, I’m guessing there isn’t going to a lot of substantive progress in the remaining days of this session.

A lot of you are thinking, “Hey, it’s only April, there’s a lot of time left to get things done.”  Consider the following: There are less than 60 “work days” left in the 113th Congress.  Between being gone on week-long district/state “work periods” throughout the rest of spring and summer, being out for a week for Memorial Day and another week for July 4, and then taking the entire month of August, only to return in September with the full House and a third of the Senate eyeing an early October adjournment so there’s more time for electioneering.  And, when they are in town, “work days” are generally only Tuesday and Wednesday.  Now you understand why some folks don’t think being a member of Congress is a full time job.

Congress will spend the rest of April and May teeing up “must-pass” legislation for floor time in June and July.  We’ll see the first of the 12 appropriations bills hit the floor of either chamber. However, it remains to be seen if  these are in jeopardy because members keep attaching policy riders to what are supposed to pure spending bills.  If this exercise in the legislative equivalent of earmarked spending continues, this year threatens yet again to hand us an omnibus spending package at the 11th hour rather than a dozen independent spending bills.

Other targets for action will include a hoped-for multi-year federal highway program reauthorization if they can figure out to make the Highway Trust Fund solvent because it’s the gas taxes paid into the trust fund that bankroll most of the projects.  If they can’t, then they’ll yet again extend the existing programs for another year.  One bright spot is the waterways bill, the package that pays for the renovation and rebuilding of locks, dams, harbors, etc. It appears there’s a meeting of the minds between House and Senate on which water projects are priority projects and they could actually pass a conference report next month.

The big, ugly, noisy issue will be immigration reform.  If House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH) has his way, the House will complete its version of reform by passing six or seven separate bills dealing with the various issues, roll them into a single package and pass that bundle.  Pro-reform folks want to see reform enacted and signed by the President before Congress adjourns, and a lot of national GOP honchos want to see it in law so as to at least begin the process of convincing folks the party is not anti-immigrant.  Boehner this week took media heat for calling out during a speech in his home district those members of his party who lack the courage or energy to tackle immigration reform, particularly the issue of a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers.  My money is on Boehner.

The purely political will also get some time.  Any member running for reelection will hit the floor with speeches about all things pure and right.  With an eye for the nearest media camera, bills with no chance of even a hearing will be introduced so incumbents can say, “Look what I did!”

Then there will be heavy issues that must be addressed situationally.  There will be sanctions on Russia for messing with Ukraine, Crimea and other former Soviet bloc countries to be named later.  There will be lots of sturm und drang over the Keystone pipeline if the White House keeps delaying its decision.  There will be rhetoric for and against the Affordable Care Act (ACA), raising the federal minimum wage to something north of $10 an hour, and there will be lots of talk but no action on comprehensive tax reform, stimulating the economy and reducing unemployment.

There’s always a lame duck session at the end of a Congress.  This is supposed to be the period when legislation almost completed at adjournment can be finally wrapped up.  These overtime periods can be productive, ceremonial or a little of both, lasting a few days or a few weeks depending on the press of “must-pass” legislation. These lame duck sessions are dangerous times; those who lose their seat or are retiring use them to seek “legacy” legislation — much of which is not so good — while everyone else just wants to get out of town to rest up for January and the beginning of the 114th Congress.