It used to be that the month of July was a very busy stretch of work for the U.S. Congress, filled with late night debate and votes on billions of dollars in annual spending, as lawmakers in the House and Senate steadily worked their way through various budget bills for the next fiscal year.
But in recent years, that work simply just doesn't get done.
For example, when the Senate starts work Tuesday on a Transportation and Housing spending measure, it will be the first time in four years that Senators have considered an appropriations bill in the month of July.
It will also be the very first spending bill considered by the Senate this year; the House has so far approved only three of the 12 budget bills that fund the operations of the federal government.
The deadline for action on the appropriation bills is September 30, the end of the fiscal year.
The last time Congress met that deadline was in 1994, as Democrats rushed to finish the appropriations bills before running home for the elections.
In other words, both parties in the Congress have failed repeatedly - year after year - to do their budget work on time.
Here's a quick rundown of how many of the twelve individual spending bills were approved by the House and Senate in the last eight years:
2012 - House 7, Senate 0
2011 - House 5, Senate 0
2010 - House 2, Senate 0
2009 - House 12, Senate 9
2008 - House 1, Senate 0
2007 - House 12, Senate 7
2006 - House 10, Senate 3
2005 - House 11, Senate 11
2004 - House 12, Senate 6
There is a look at the last eight calendar years of action in the Congress on spending bills. You can see that some years there was a lot of work - and in others, not so much.
In 2004, the House passed all twelve of their budget bills in June and July. So far this year, the tally is three.
Six other bills are ready for action in the House, including the Defense Appropriations bill, which has 100 amendments in order and will be the focus of work this week.
The Senate has eight appropriations bills ready for floor action.
When you realize that Congress will work this week and next week, and just two weeks in September - you can see why there is no way that lawmakers will get their budget work done on time by September 30.
That's four weeks of scheduled floor work over the next ten weeks. Not exactly a calendar for getting things done quickly.
It means that the Congress will again be forced to use stop-gap budgets, or Continuing Resolutions, to fund the government.
It used to be that the "August Recess" - which usually stretches for five weeks - was a much needed respite after a furious July work period.
Not this year.
For those keeping score at home, you can see the progress of Congress on the annual spending bills at http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app14.html.
