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Posted: 9:14 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012
By Jamie Dupree
If you missed the wrap up of the pre-election session in Congress, it was probably because you weren't watching C-SPAN2 at 4:03 am on Saturday morning when the Senate adjourned, setting the next vote for November 13, one week after the elections.
The House got out of town at lunch time on Friday, with lawmakers smacking their lips and licking their fingers after eating some ribs cooked by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), which he conveniently set out in the Speaker's Lobby just off the House floor.
For a variety of reasons, the Senate waited until midnight to take five different votes, as Senators approved a six month stop gap budget to keep the government running until late March of next year.
It meant that between the start of their summer break back in early August and the beginning of their post election session in mid-November - the House and Senate will each have met for only eight legislative work days.
Let me put that another way - they will have had eight legislative work days on the floors of the House and Senate over a period of fourteen weeks.
You can determine whether that is good or bad; the statistic is there for your use.
While the Congress did not act on a variety of major items, like the budget, automatic budget cuts, the expiring income tax rates and much more, there was a flurry of legislative action at 3:30 am on Saturday known as "Wrap up."
That is when the Senate approves a host of bills and other measures by unanimous consent.
So here is what was in "Wrap up" - the Senate will be back to do this again in November.
Jamie Dupree is the Radio News Director of the Washington Bureau of the Cox Media Group and writes the Washington Insider blog.
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