It's the biannual dilemma for Republicans: Conduct their last few months of campaigning via petty political fights in Washington that will energize the base, or do it at home? Consensus this year is to do it at home, as negotiators for the House and Senate are closing in on a deal for a stop-gap government funding bill that will keep the doors open until early December—because they really want to get out of town, probably as early as this week.
“I’m glad there wasn’t [drama],” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said in an interview. “I think right now everybody is focused on Nov. 8 and any consequential legislative action probably doesn’t take place until after that.” […]
“I think the Senate probably [finishes] by the middle of the week and us maybe by the end, maybe spill over into the week after,” said a relaxed Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a senior member on the House Appropriations Committee, when asked to predict how they wrap up.
The Senate has teed up a key procedural vote Monday on a stopgap bill to fund government agencies until mid-December, after staffers worked over the weekend to put the finishing touches on a proposal that would satisfy both sides.
That will pretty much have to mean a funding bill that does not include prohibiting Zika funding going to Planned Parenthood. Democrats have held firm on that. And since Republican leadership has managed to dick around on Zika funding until we're almost out of mosquito season, they probably figure no one will pay too much attention to that. Even the House maniacs, the Freedom Caucus seem resigned to not putting up a fight—right now. All but one of them. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, who lost his primary to a not-so-crazy Republican, is certain that leadership took him down. He still wants to raise hell about having an impeachment vote on the IRS commissioner who wasn't in office to do the thing the Freedom Caucus wants to impeach him for. The rest of his group has agreed to a compromise—a hearing on Wednesday—but the bitter Huelskamp might still try to force a floor vote. After all, he doesn't have to get home to campaign. He might as well make life as difficult for everyone else as he can.
President Obama took on the do-nothing Congress in his weekly address Saturday, hitting them for a huge laundry list of unresolved business: Zika money, aid to flood-ravaged Louisiana and the unprecedented blockade of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. He finished his address by reminding voters that there's something they can do about that: contact their congressional representatives to get them moving on these issues. "And if they still refuse to do their jobs," he said, "well, you know what to do in November."
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