Senators on both sides of the aisle left the Capitol frustrated as they began a recess in August after seven months of work that saw political messaging wars overturn legislative results.
With the exception of a major foreign aid package in April, most major legislative items have stalled, leaving lawmakers with little to brag about ahead of the November elections.
“Terrible,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said of the chamber’s “work” so far.
It’s not at all unusual for legislation to take a backseat to messaging in a presidential election year, but it still provoked complaints — with each party blaming the other.
“Yes, I wish we could have done more,” he added.
In addition to the consistent flow of lawsuits and “When you have MAGA Republicans in control of the House, it obviously becomes more difficult to get things done because they don’t want to move forward in a bipartisan way,” the senator said. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who praised the passage of the foreign aid bill and most of the Senate’s appropriations work, although he admitted the last item is a “low bar.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee introduced 11 of the 12 bills, but none received a floor vote.
In addition to the consistent flow of judicial and executive branch nominees, the Senate also managed to clarify several must-have packages, including government funding and reauthorizations of the Federal Aviation Administration and the nation’s warrantless surveillance program.
The Senate also passed two bills last week aimed at increasing child safety and regulating technology companies, but action on them only came after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) held months of what Republicans derided as “show votes.” ” Most of them were part of the party’s message on reproductive rights.
Schumer also failed to put rail safety legislation into practice – much to the chagrin of Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who is involved in one of the key re-election battles in November. Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio), the new Republican vice presidential candidate, is the lead Republican sponsor of the proposal, which is being opposed by sections of the Republican leadership.
Senate Republicans also accused Schumer of holding one last meeting Thursday before members left for recess on the House bill expanding the child tax credit. GOP members of the Senate overwhelmingly opposed the effort, arguing that the Democratic leader was not trying to get a legislative result by putting it on the floor.
Schumer placed the blame on his Republican colleagues.
“Today, Senate Republicans boldly told the American people that we refuse to help them in 2024 and we want to be frank, Republicans voted no because of partisanship, not politics,” he said after the vote failed.
Election year problems also doomed lawmakers’ most ambitious legislative effort this year — the bipartisan border bill authored by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I -Ariz.). ), which was killed almost as soon as it was released by conservatives.
Former President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) led the charge for sinking the package, arguing it didn’t go far enough to satisfy their palette, with Republicans also reluctant to give President Biden a political victory on an issue that continues to be a sensitive point for Democrats.
The House calendar is also causing frustration on the Republican side, especially in the last two years since Republicans won back the House, due to what they consider to be a light workload and Schumer’s decision to start a few weeks of work in the Senate with a “magical Monday”.
During these weeks, House votes are generally held on Tuesday evening, with members leaving for the weekend on Thursday afternoon. In both 2023 and 2024, before the August break, nine weeks started with a Tuesday session, compared to just one week in 2022.
“Why not go home?” Cramer said. “When we’re here, it’s not like we’re working either.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
