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Senate Passes Budget, But Where's The House?

With representatives on recess, there will be no final action until June

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 23) -- The Senate easily passed the budget resolution early this afternoon, but since House members have skipped town for the next week, the budget can't emerge from Congress until early June.

The resolution drew deep bipartisan support in the Senate. The 78-22 tally included 41 Republican and 37 Democratic supporters, while only 14 Republicans and eight Democrats voted "no." The House passed its version of the budget 333-99 in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

The versions passed by the Senate and House are very similar but not identical, so a small amount of cleanup work has to be done before the budget is finished.

The delay stems from the decision of House leaders to adjourn for the week without moving on the unrelated disaster relief supplementary spending bill.

This move enraged South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle and other Democrats, who wrecked a delicate plan built by House leaders that would have allowed House members to scoot home for their recess, but still allow the House to clean up budget details and move it along.

House members have left town, but they're not on recess, exactly. Congress has to pass a resolution every time it goes into recess for more than three days. But House Democrats angry about going home without having cleared the disaster relief money led a movement to defeat the resolution.

So the House is in informal recess for the next week, and will be called into what's known as "pro-forma" sessions from time to time next week, something that can be done with just the handful of members still in Washington.