WASHINGTON (AP) — Election-year politics will rule the congressional calendar when lawmakers return from a seven-week recess.
Congress will have a little more than four weeks in session beginning Tuesday before the November election, or around 20 days. Lawmakers are scheduled to leave town again in early October to return home and campaign.
There’s a lot on the docket, but there’s only one thing that Congress must do in the coming month: Figure out a way to keep the government open before spending legislation expires Oct. 1.
Beyond that, there are other high-priority items on the agenda, such as approving funds to combat the mosquito-borne Zika virus, and defense policy legislation that determines how much is spent on the nation’s military. Other measures, such as gun control legislation and the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, face much longer odds for passage.
Both chambers will also spend time on political investigations such as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Iran nuclear deal.
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