Congress Takes A Break

Congress has voted to take an early break from sessions until after the November elections to allow Senators and Representatives to return to their home states for the final weeks of election campaigning. The scheduled date for the adjournment was October 8th, but a motion to adjourn passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 210 for, 209 against. One of the final votes in both the House and the Senate was a spending bill that would provide government funding through December 3rd, as well a bill to continue funding NASA until 2013 that passed in the Senate, and a bill that would provide medical compensation to emergency workers during and after the 9/11 attack. Notably, the future of the tax cuts passed under the Bush administration in 2001 and 2003 (and that are set to expire at the end of this year) were not decided before this adjournment, leaving that decision to be made by what is called the "lame duck" session. This refers to the period after an election but before the newly elected Congressmen (Congresspeople?) replace their predecessors. There is a sentiment that this was going to be a difficult, and quite possibly unpopular decision to make, and many are choosing to avoid it in the run-up to a highly contested election.

This article gives some insight into the actual workings and motivations of Congress. It is a little disheartening that our representatives have postponed difficult legislation in favor of personal campaigning, but there may be a strategy behind the move (I.E. "lame duck" members who have lost their seats may vote differently than they would have before the election...).