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House and Senate members are convinced that the 110th Congress is likely to extend into next week, next month or possibly November, as the chambers’ already crowded agenda now includes rescuing Wall Street.
Lawmakers are also wrestling with still-simmering debates on energy, taxes, economic stimulus proposals, defense policy and a must-pass, stopgap spending resolution to keep the federal government running.
In the Senate, that’s enough of a workload to convince many members — from leadership to rank and file — that a Friday adjournment for the rest of the year is not likely to happen.
“No way,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). “We’re going to be here for a while.”
The good news is that there is bipartisan agreement on the likelihood of an extension of the current session or a lame-duck session.
“For all of these things to get accomplished before the end of the week is going to require a level of bipartisanship that perhaps isn’t evident here on most days,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the GOP’s chief deputy whip.
Even Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) reminded reporters that no presidential-election-year Congress in the past 20 years has adjourned in September.“We’ve had them go as late as Oct. 28,” Reid said. “My caucus has a lot of things they’ve planned and want to do, there’s campaigns going on, and they would like to go home. But we’re going to finish this at the right time, not some arbitrary date.”
The size and scope of the remaining agenda are even throwing doubt on Congress’s usual last-minute knack for wrapping up agreements and fleeing town on Thursday nights before a weekend.
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