Reid warns of December adjournment

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) suggested Thursday that lawmakers may need to stay until Christmas to finish their must-pass bills.

His comments underscored that one of Congress’s most stubborn bipartisan traditions — the unattainable adjournment date — may again stand the test of time.

{mosads}According to the current House calendar, the first session will end Oct. 26, giving lawmakers plenty of time to go back to their districts to talk about the session’s successes or failures, depending on their party.

In reality, Congress rarely adjourns before November, oftentimes staying through December to complete the “people’s work” — appropriations bills — before members head home for the year.

Reid said he hoped that the Senate would not stay until Christmas because of the lingering appropriations battle, but he didn’t rule it out. In July, Reid set the target date at Nov. 16, but was less than confident that the goal would be met even at that point.

Reid added he has spent a lot of time negotiating the appropriations process with House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) as well as the new chief of the Office of Management and Budget, Jim Nussle.

Reid called the difference between the White House budget request and the pending appropriations bills — $21 billion — “a very small amount.” The White House has threatened to veto any spending bill that exceeds its request.

“It’s not as if we are trying to spend this money” on brand-new programs, he said, noting that the funding would go toward law enforcement programs, healthcare and education.

“I don’t want a headache, I want to try to work this out,” Reid said.

He added, however, that the going might be tough, blaming Bush’s “unusual” way of negotiating. “It’s his way or no way.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) was slightly more optimistic, explaining that House lawmakers have opted to work the week of Columbus Day rather than taking it off like their Senate colleagues.

“We have work to do, and we’re going to [do] it,” Hoyer said. “We are hopeful to certainly get out — we scheduled October 26th as the date to adjourn.”

He added: “I would be unrealistic if I told you that I thought October 26th was a hard date at best.”

House Republicans blamed the inability to meet the deadline on what they described as a light work schedule of early votes and adjournment.

“I think Democrats are coming to the realization that fewer post offices need naming than they had previously thought. It was a fundamental miscalculation on their part,” quipped Amos Snead, a spokesman for Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

A House GOP aide added: “This majority couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a beach ball from point-blank, no less a target adjournment date when not a single spending bill has arrived on the president’s desk to date.

“Having said that, we’re heading for the biggest omnibus in history, and we’ll see it around the time kids start looking for Santa,” the aide added.

In July 2006, then-Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) proposed abolishing adjournment dates, citing the fact that they are never met on time and are arbitrary at best.

“It means nothing,” Boehner told reporters at the time. “You all know it means nothing because it really does mean nothing. Anyway, there is no reason to have a target adjournment on the schedule.”

Manu Raju and Mike Soraghan contributed to this report.