ANALYSIS — The end of July is always a whirlwind of activity in Congress. It’s the last chance to pass bills and hold hearings before the August recess, so the calendar gets jam-packed. This week was no different, with the House voting on spending bills late into the night — sometimes to no avail, as GOP unity frayed.
And on Thursday, exhausted by this sprint, the chamber gathered to address one final piece of legislation, one presumably more important to Republican leadership than everything else left on the agenda: H. Res. 1371, a resolution “strongly condemning the Biden Administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris’s, failure to secure the United States border.”
Summer is silly season in Congress, a time when political messaging ahead of autumn’s elections tends to take precedence over the drudgery of governance. Lawmakers universally deride the time wasted on these messaging bills — but only when they’re in the minority. When Congress returns for another short September session before leaving D.C. for the campaign trail in October, you can expect to see more.
