Judd Gregg: Ax the August recess

Washington politics has its own particular and controlling calendar, just as the lives that swirl around it do.

Every two years, there is a major election that determines the make up of the House and puts in play one-third of the Senate. As a direct result, most substantive things on the legislative to-do list fall away in January to be replaced by reelection rhetoric. Usually, nothing much gets accomplished.

Then, every four years, there is a presidential election, an event that in essence throws the policy calendar into reverse gear.  Not only does nothing usually get accomplished in a presidential election year; nothing is even seriously tried.

{mosads}This brings us to the first year after a new president has been elected. In the unusual world of Washington, such a year is like a solar eclipse. It does not come around that often — usually once in eight years, sometimes once in four years. But when it does occur, it is a truly atypical period in American politics.

It is a time when things get done. It is a good time. Governing happens. 

Whether you like the results or not depends on your disposition towards the new president and Congress. But it is at least a period when there seems to be a purpose for having them in Washington.

Unfortunately, if you are an American citizen not integrally involved in the daily whirl of our capitol city, either as a member of government or the press, then you are probably asking yourself, what happened to this calendar?  

Did we not recently have an election where the nation put in place a new president who got, as a bonus prize, a Congress dominated by his own party?

Is this not, therefore, suppose to be that rarest of times in our nation’s federal government when the window of action is thrown open?

The president and the Congress are given the chance to do something legislatively that is substantive and hopefully helpful to those of us who populate this wondrous country beyond the Beltway.

Yes, of course it is! 

But, no, this year it is not happening.

The administration can point to its actions on regulatory relief that have been done unilaterally. The Congress can point to passing a series of bills that ended regulations that had been imposed during the waning days of the Obama presidency.   

But these are reactive actions. They are negative — not in the sense of being bad, but in the sense of negating something that had previously been done.

They are not the type of legislation that delivers a message of hope and opportunity. Nothing like that has happened.

It is true that the Senate and House may be working towards a healthcare bill. But the outlook on that, even if there is Senate action this week, is murky at best. 

There has been a great deal of talk in other important areas especially tax reform, infrastructure, tax repatriation, immigration and even education. But there is no discernible, definitive action occurring.

If you are a person who is not intimately involved in Washington, but is just going about doing things that matter such as working a job or raising a family, you probably look at your government with deep exasperation.

Time is being frittered away. 

The calendar that so dominates the activities of our national government is moving on.

It will not return again to this spot, this point of legislative opportunity, for a very long time.

If, in this time when things usually can get done, nothing gets done, it will be one of the greatest failures of recent memory. A few worthless tweets could be the legacy of the period.

There is one chance to buy some more time during this phase of the political sun. It also only comes once. It is called the month of August. 

Considering the lack of progress made by this president and Congress to date, declaring a recess and going away for the month of August would be an action of the most egregious malfeasance.    

Take a recess when the calendar is working against you, in the election year, not at the one time when action is both expected and viable.

Members of Congress and Mr. President, do not go home or wherever else you go in August. Stay on the job. Do something good for the country. Move towards real, final action on at least healthcare and tax reform. 

Do not let this unique time on the calendar be lost or wasted. 

A recess has not been earned and is not in order.

Judd Gregg (R) is a former governor and three-term senator from New Hampshire who served as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, and as ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations subcommittee.