After returning to work from an extended summer vacation less than two weeks ago, lawmakers in the Congress will rush in coming days to finish several must-pass legislative items before taking another break from Washington, D.C., even with all kinds of work unfinished on a number of fronts.
With no chance to finish all twelve budget bills for next fiscal year by the end of this month, the House and Senate this week will have to approve a stop gap budget to keep the government running.
The emerging plan from Republicans, which has already drawn some support from Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, would fund operations in the new fiscal year through mid-November.
The bill, which the House is scheduled to vote on Wednesday, must make it through the Congress before lawmakers leave on a ten day break at the end of this week.
The plan includes $3.65 billion in extra disaster relief money for FEMA, $1.5 billion of which would be offset by a cut to the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, a Bush-era plan that helps automakers make their production facilities more energy-efficient.
The rest of the money for disaster relief would not be offset by any spending reductions and would instead be added to the deficit.
That's a much different plan on disaster aid than what the Senate approved last week, where 10 Republicans joined with Democrats to approve almost $7 billion in FEMA relief, with no budget cuts to pay for it.
Where the middle ground is on the "Continuing Resolution" (or "CR" as it is known in Capitol Hill parlance) isn't clear.
By waiting until mid-week to approve the CR, House Republicans are presenting Senate Democrats with major time hurdles to overcome to get something finished before lawmakers head home.
As for the budget, the House has approved six of the dozen budget bills for the new fiscal year; the Senate has okayed only one of those measures.
And already, there is talk that instead of approving those bills one-by-one the rest of this year, Republicans are hinting that they may roll the bills into one large spending "omnibus" bill.
That might make some on Capitol Hill shake their heads, since when the GOP was in the minority just last year, the idea of approving a giant Omnibus bill was equal to "legislative failure" by the Democrats.
I spent a little time going through the Congressional Record this past weekend, trying to figure out when the last time was that Congress finished all of the appropriations (spending) work on time, by the end of the fiscal year.
The last time the Congress got all of the spending bills done on was 1994; before that it was 1988. Going back to 1973 (that's as far as the Library of Congress goes back for modern lawmaking), 1976 was the only other time I could find that lawmakers met their budget bill deadline of October 1.
That is three times in the last 38 years - a pretty pathetic record.
For those interested, all three of those times, the Democrats ran the Congress, twice with Republicans in the White House ('88 and '76) and once with a Democrat ('94).
When I asked my wife - who also worked on Capitol Hill - when she thought the Congress had last done all the budget bills by October 1, she didn't have an answer, she just laughed, instinctively knowing that it rarely happens.
Let's face it - if you can't get the budget done on time, how can you expect to fix the budget deficit and long term debt situation?
For those who keep an eye on the Congress, it might remind one of some familiar song lyrics:
"Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss."
