Thread: No July recess for Senate

No July recess for Senate


By SCOTT WONG | 7/1/11 12:20 AM EDT

In case Congress didn’t take enough schoolyard bullying from President Barack Obama, members found out Thursday they’re missing recess next week — the first time the Senate has worked through the Fourth of July break since 1974.

The threat of yanking recess, working late or into the weekend, has been a favorite tactic for Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Nevada Democrat has invoked his inner elementary school teacher repeatedly over the past few years in final pushes to get major legislative deals across the finish line, from the Christmas Eve passage of health care reform in 2009 to a series of bills during the 2010 lame-duck session.


This time, though, Reid was the one boxed in, caving to a band of freshman Republicans who vowed to object to adjournment and feeling heat from Obama, who reprimanded lawmakers in a Wednesday news conference for breaking as the debt ceiling deadline looms with no deal in sight.

It turns out the threat of a timeout — or, in the grownup world, a time in — is a powerful political weapon for whoever wields it.

Even as senators declared that there is nothing more important than solving the nation’s debt crisis, they lamented about how inconvenient it was to have to cancel long-planned town hall meetings, parade appearances, trips abroad and visits with family.

Freshman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who needs to stay connected with voters ahead of a tough election in 2012, said he had planned a workweek in his state, hopping from town to town.

“I’m going to make personal calls to tell them I can’t be there,â€

How about NO PAY INCREASES or benefits for the Senate! They are the ones that got us here to begin with.......let them antie-up some of their hard earned dollars

Gee why bother even if they stay in session they do nothing...except maybe cause more havoc.

Kathyet