If you are wondering what members of Congress do during their extended August breaks, the short answer is, it depends on what year it is. If it is an even-numbered year, like 2024, you can bet they are doing everything possible to get reelected come November.
Only those with safe districts can even think about a week-long beach vacation with their families. There is a reason the leadership in Congress made clear to call these out-of-session breaks “District Work Periods.” Leaders fully expect their party colleagues will work every nook and cranny of their congressional districts to milk every vote possible.
Both the House and Senate are up for grabs, given their narrow ruling majorities. The House Republican majority only has an eight-seat edge over the Democrats at present. The Senate is even closer, with Democrats holding a 51-49 advantage that includes four independents who caucus with the majority. This year, 33 Senate seats are up for regular election, ten held by Republicans, 19 by Democrats, and all four independent seats. In addition, there will be two special elections to fill the seats vacated by the late Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who resigned earlier this year.
Moreover, the presidential race presents a quadrennial quandary that candidates up and down the ballot must take into account and campaign on, in addition to their own records in Congress.
The majority leadership in both houses, usually after consultation with their minority party counterparts, lay-out the calendar for each year so that members have clear planning markers for when they need to be in Washington and when they are expected to return to their districts. That enables them to schedule important events in both venues, such as fund-raisers, constituent town-halls, political rallies and assisting colleagues with their reelection efforts both in D.C. and in their respective districts.
The breaks also allow committees and subcommittees to stage field hearings around the country on issues of national concern. Such hearings are usually bipartisan in nature with at least two members (a quorum) holding exchange hearings in each of their districts.
Members recognize the value of having some of their staff aides in Washington who are from the members’ districts. It is a source of pride both for the member and constituents. It also allows those staff to visit their home towns during the breaks and pitch-in on office work there. The work can range from helping with constituent case work, district projects requiring federal assistance (e.g., on highways, dams and bridges), or driving the boss around the district in mobile office vans to meet with constituents and learn of their needs and concerns. Staffers are usually more than willing to help with such work. They know their jobs are on the line as well.
This 118th Congress, like its predecessors, is getting further behind on its must-pass legislative work, namely the 12 appropriations bills to run the government. The House has only passed five of the 12 to date and left town a week early while considering the sixth (Energy-Water). However, it defeated the bill funding Congress itself, and it held up a bill that it had passed (Homeland Security), instructing the clerk not to transmit the homeland bill to the Senate until the upper body passes the Secure the Border Act of 2023 in the same form as passed by the House.
Meanwhile, the Senate is again playing wait-and-see, refusing to take-up any of the four bills sent to it by the House. Last year, it refused to consider any of the six regular appropriations measures passed by the House until the end, when it used the military construction appropriations bill as the vehicle for bundling all the other money bills into an omnibus consolidated measure to close-out the fiscal year six months late, on March 1, 2024.
It is a familiar stand-off, given the split party-control of the two bodies, and this year promises to be another series of continuing appropriations resolutions to keep the government running after the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year. Only this time, the drop-dead date is noon on Jan. 3, 2025, when this Congress ends and the 119th Congress is sworn-in.
It has almost become a cliché to observe, “This is a heck-of-a-way to run a government.” But that’s what legislating has come down to, given the highly polarized, contentious and even toxic partisan governing process that has emerged. The one thing we can depend on is that members will faithfully observe their scheduled “district work periods” to keep those home fires burning.
Don Wolfensberger is a 28-year congressional staff veteran, culminating as chief-of-staff of the House Rules Committee in 1995. He is author of, “Congress and the People: Deliberative Democracy on Trial” (2000), and, “Changing Cultures in Congress: From Fair Play to Power Plays” (2018).
