Should Congress eliminate August recess?

Tampa FL

Description

I think they should. No business closes their doors for an entire month especially when their employees miss deadlines. Recess is officially called “district work period” or “state work period” but many go on vacation during the month of August or take congressional trips overseas. Before air conditioning was invented, Congress was out of session for most of summer because the heat and humidity was unbearable, but to this day, they still take most or all of August off. The most basic constitutional responsibility that Congress has is passing a budget. There are 12 appropriations bills that must be passed and by the time they leave at the end of July, none get passed. Congress usually reconvenes after Labor Day and still nothing on the budget gets done and so they scramble to pass a continuing resolution towards the end of the month, sometimes at the last minute. At some point, months later, an omnibus bill containing thousands of pages is released days or even hours before it gets voted on, providing little or no time to read it before voting on it. This happens EVERY year no matter which party controls Congress and/or the White House. Senator Dianne Feinstein said she didn’t know what a continuing resolution is. I really think she meant to say she didn’t know what was it since they are rushed through at the last minute. Robert Wittman from Virginia often asked Nancy Pelosi and Paul Ryan to cancel recess to work on the budget. In a letter he wrote to her in July, he said “One of Congress’ most basic duties is to fully fund the government, yet with few legislative days remaining, lawmakers have found themselves unable to get the job done. Despite Congress’ failure to even consider the twelve annual appropriation bills on the house floor, Congress is set to adjourn for 6 weeks beginning in August. With so much work left to be done, it astounds me that Members of Congress feel justified in taking a month off.” By eliminating August recess, it would allow more time to throughly consider each of the 12 appropriations bills. There are often other issues that need to be addressed by Congress that often get blown off because no one wants to give up recess.