Congress shuts its doors until November
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(AP) WASHINGTON - The most partisan, least productive Congress in memory has skipped out of Washington so lawmakers can make their case for voters to re-elect them.
The Senate closed the Capitol not long after sending President Barak Obama a spending bill that will make sure the government won't shut down Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year. The measure passed early Saturday by a 62-30 vote.
Left behind for a postelection session is a pile of unfinished business on the budget and taxes, farm policy and legislation to save the Postal Service from insolvency.
The GOP-controlled House beat its retreat Friday morning after taking one last, futile slap at Obama by passing a bill called the "Stop the War on Coal Act." The measure, dead on arrival in the Senate, was aimed at boosting the coal industry in its fight against new environmental regulations while hurting Obama's political prospects in coal states such as Ohio and Virginia.
The Democratic-controlled Senate's middle-of-the-night session came after a spitting match between Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Republicans over Reid's insistence on advancing legislation by Sen. Jon Tester of Montana to boost access to public lands for hunting and fishing.
Tester is perhaps the Senate's most endangered Democrat and Republicans protested that he was being given special treatment in a clearly political move to boost his re-election chances. The measure cleared a procedural hurdle by an 84-7 vote.
The votes came at midnight to give senators who had scattered from Washington time to return.
Democrat Claire McCaskill was in Missouri for a debate, while Michael Bennet, D-Colo., had been in the southwest portion of his state to attend a ceremony celebrating the new Chimney Rock National Monument. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was venting his frustrations with American Airlines on Twitter.
The only must-do item on the get-out-of-Dodge agenda was a six-month spending measure to fulfill the bare minimum of Congress' responsibilities by keeping the government running after the current budget year ends on Sept. 30.
The spending measure permits spending on agency operating budgets at levels agreed to under last summer's hard-fought budget and debt deal between Obama and Capitol Hill Republicans. That's 0.6 percent increase from current spending rates, which represents a defeat for House Republicans, who had sought to cut about 2 percent below the budget deal and shift $8 billion from domestic programs to the Pentagon.
Reid also relented to a demand by tea party Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for a vote on suspending foreign aid to the governments of Libya, Egypt and Pakistan. Paul only got 10 votes. But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., won approval of a nonbinding resolution supporting steps to make sure Iran doesn't develop a nuclear weapon.
It's the earliest pre-election exit by Congress from Washington since 1960, though lawmakers will return after the Nov. 6 vote to deal with unfinished work.
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Unfortunately, it has to be handled state by state..they send the crooks to Washington..
I would include political appointees they put into power which can be handled federally....involving the Federal Reserve, Treasury...
you never vote incumbents and never vote republican, so that means you always have republicans. I kind of have the same problem, my vote here wouldn't make any difference because it is a heavy democratic state and we usually know the winning outcome before it ever comes to use anyway.
No; IF there is NOT a "new" democrate challenging I will vote for one of the off the wall party line candidates, hence, never a republican. If no third party candidate then I leave it alone.
not surprising, the pre-election period justifies the desertion of the Capitol by its tenants, anyway even in ordinary times, the Congress operates at the speed of a tortoise, the cases left on hold, are a proof.
"au revoir"