• Congress took an eight-day break to celebrate the Fourth of July. However, the Senate continued its pro forma sessions to prevent President Bush making recess appointments from a long waiting list. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) instituted these proceedings early in this session so that Bush’s nominees would have to be submitted to the Senate for a vote of approval.
• Meanwhile, major legislation has been stuck in a Senate logjam and pundits opined that political maneuvering for the coming election is the cause. Democrats have accused Republicans of adopting a strategy that would lead to the appellation of a “do nothing” Congress. Among the bills in the logjam was a housing rescue bill that stalled due to a dispute about tax breaks for renewable energy production and a Medicare bill that Republicans filibustered because of a dispute over cutbacks in a program called Medicare Advantage. Senators of both parties complained that the logjam has been due to the prodigious use of filibusters (cloture motions to end debate) since January 2007.
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