Senate to Return Jan. 22, After Series of Pro Forma Sessions By Bart Jansen and Edward Epstein, CQ Staff
The House and Senate will start the second session of the 110th Congress slightly out of sync.
The Senate will return Jan. 22, a week after the House, according to two aides. Previously, the Senate had tentatively set Jan. 15 for its return, but leaders decided to push that back a week that after the White House shifted the date for the State of the Union address to Jan. 28.
The House still plans to return Jan. 15 as previously announced, according to Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md. “We have a lot of work to do that’s left undone,” Hoyer said. “I don’t think it will be a backbreaking schedule.
Barring any last-minute deal with the White House, Senate leaders are preparing to schedule a series of pro forma sessions between the end of this year’s business and the start of the second session. The Senate will meet briefly every few days to block President Bush from making recess appointments, the two aides said.
The Constitution allows presidents to circumvent the need for Senate confirmation and fill vacancies that “happen during the recess of the Senate.” An official receiving a recess appointment this year could serve until the end of the 110th Congress, just weeks before the end of Bush’s second term.
During the August break, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., called the Senate into session for a few moments every three days.
The days mapped out for the next round of pro forma sessions are Dec. 22, 26, 28 and 31, and Jan. 3, 7, 9, 11, 15 and 18.
Source: CQ Today