Congress left town with unfinished business

WASHINGTON - When Congress left town for a five-week vacation this month, it left more unfinished than finished.

The list is long, including renewing the federal farm bill; replacing the controversial and unpopular sequestration measure; funding appropriations bills; reforming immigration laws and a solution to the thorny question of raising the debt ceiling.

Instead, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives spent its last day before recess on Aug. 2, passing a resolution to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It was the 40th time the lower chamber has tried unsuccessfully to prevent the implementation of Obamacare. For its part, the Senate wasn't even in session on that Friday, as usual.

At Iowa State University, political scientist Dave Peterson says the stalemate in Washington is as bad as he's seen it in at least the past 15 years. Even worse, Peterson says it seems to be “the new normal.”

“It's more polarized than I've ever seen it, and there's less action than I've ever seen,” Peterson said. “It's the future of our system, not a bug. Power is divided in Washington, and the only way anything gets done is if the president, 60 senators and a majority of the House agree on something - but there's not a lot of issues that fall into that shared space. It's how the founders intended it, but it's kind of preventing anything right now.”

The inaction means that when congress returns Sept. 9 to Washington, they will face even more pressure - in an ever-increasing, hyperpartisan atmosphere - to finish what they left unfinished. The farm bill expires Sept. 30, as does the continuing budget resolution that has been funding the government during the budget cuts known as sequestration. There is a looming fight between Republicans who have threatened to deny funding and shut down the government unless Obamacare is defunded.

Lastly, another debt ceiling vote will present itself around the same time, again putting the government at risk of fiscal default. House Republicans have given President Barack Obama a “menu” of options under which they would agree to a debt ceiling increase, all of which include restrictions or privatization of Medicare and Social Security.

The crush of deadlines will come just as Congress is traditionally dwindling down its work pace during the last quarter of the year. By one count, including recesses, holidays and the near-monthlong December recess, Congress may have less than a dozen working days to get its work done.

Sensing the looming logjam, Iowa's Democratic House Reps. Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack called on House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to cancel the August recess to focus on topics such as the farm bill.

“Congress needs to be hard at work, not on vacation,” Loebsack said.

Actually, Congress has worked hard at working less. A recent CNN analysis found the House has only been in session for 56 percent of non-holiday weekdays or less than three days per week. The Senate has been at work for only 61 percent of workdays. That is the lowest total for the chambers in the past five years. Accordingly, a CNN composite poll found only 17 percent of Americans approve of Congress's job performance.

The slower work pace obviously has caused fewer bills to be passed. A study conducted last week by USA Today through the Resume of Congressional Activity found that Congress has passed only 15 bills this year. The next-least-productive Congress was in 2011-2012, when 238 bills were passed.

Yet in the Senate, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is disregarding the prevailing winds and actually planning an “ambitious” legislative agenda in the coming months. Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, plans to bring forward legislation to lower college costs, expand Social Security benefits, improve access to the workforce for the disabled and raise the minimum wage for the first time in five years.

Harkin pointed out that the Senate has passed a bipartisan immigration reform bill, as well as a bipartisan farm bill. He said only intransigence by House Republicans is preventing progress.

“It has been the Senate's leadership in passing bipartisan legislation - such as the farm bill and immigration reform - that has moved the policy debate forward,” Harkin said. “I am very concerned that House Republicans are going to push our country back into another crisis by threatening to shut down the government and not raise the debt limit.”

Harkin's colleague, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, pointed the blame for Congress' inaction toward the Democratic-led Senate's three-day workweek, even though the GOP-controlled House follows the same schedule.

“When the majority leader decides that the Senate is only going to work three days a week, it's only logical that there be a long list of unfinished business,” Grassley said.