Sunday with the Senators: July 4th Recess

by: DocJess

Sun Jun 28, 2009 at 13:00:00 PM EDT

Yes, the Senate is off for a long recess. They have a lot to do when they return, but it begs the question of why they get so much more vacation time than the rest of us. (And yes, I know we have a lot of Europeans who read this site, and no, I don't mean you, and yes, I'm jealous of the amount of time y'all get off every summer.) It's just with all the state government furloughs, and corporate furloughs and layoffs, it would be nice if they at least paid lip service to everyone else's trials and tribulations and kept working.

They'll come back to a number of big things: cap and trade, which barely passed the House, and the prospects of which don't look all that good in the Senate. As an aside, we have this from the House on cap and trade: 

When asked why he read portions of the cap-and-trade bill on the floor Friday night, [John] Boehner told The Hill, "Hey, people deserve to know what's in this pile of s--t." [...]

Pelosi's office declined to comment on Boehner's jab. But one Democratic aide quipped, "What do you expect from a guy who thinks global warming is caused by cow manure?"

Also, Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings begin on the 13^th of July. That's in addition to the more than three dozen other nominations they still need to consider.  You can see the list of previous hearings here.

In addition, they should have passed the 2010 legislative appropriations bill before they left, but thanks to the IIE Party of No, they will still need to debate four amendments before being able to vote on the full bill. 

Still, the Senators are home, and that means they'll be out amoungst us, the voters. You can call your Senator's office to find out where they'll be. And then you can show up. Not to every event, but normally Senators are "findable". As are reps, who are also home. TELL THEM how you feel on cap and trade, on the budget, on Sotomayor, on health care, or whatever your issue is - they actually care what you think. It's one of the gauges they use to help figure out which votes will help get them re-elected.