By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is off for the campaign season, as lawmakers from one of the most chaotic and unproductive legislative sessions in modern times try to persuade voters to keep them on the job.
The House Republicans led the tumult — painstakingly electing their speaker in a bitter public feud then swiftly booting him from office, something never before seen. But the deeply divided Senate was not immune from the inaction, lumbering through a modest agenda.
Taken together, the lack of big-ticket accomplishments is underscoring a volatile November election season with control of Congress a toss-up.
“The good thing is Congress didn’t allow much to go through law,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke, a former Trump administration Cabinet secretary who is now running for re-election to his House seat in Montana. “But what it didn’t do, either, is it didn’t reach its potential.”
House Republicans blocked not only the Biden-Harris priorities of the Democrats, he said, but “in many ways, we blocked our own agenda.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, walks with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., left, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., as he arrives for a briefing with lawmakers about the war effort against Russia, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
From left, Sgt. Edward Lenz, Commander of Butler County Emergency Services Unit, Patrolman Drew Blasko of Butler Township Police Department, former U.S. Secret Service agent Patrick Sullivan, and Lt. John Herold of Pennsylvania State Police, arrive to testify at the first public hearing of a bipartisan congressional task force investigating the assassination attempts against Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, at Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Chairman Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., left, greets Ranking Member Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., right, at the first public hearing of a bipartisan congressional task force investigating the assassination attempts against Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, at Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Witnesses stand to be sworn-in from left, Dr. Ariel Goldschmidt, Medical Examiner of Allegheny County, Pa. (appearing virtually), Patrick Sullivan, former U.S. Secret Service agent, Lt. John D. Herold of Pennsylvania State Police, Patrolman Drew Blasko of Butler Township Police Dept. , and Sgt. Edward Lenz of Adams Township Police Department and Commander of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, during a House Task Force hearing on the July 13, 2024 attempted assassination of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pa., Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, on Capitol Hill, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., left, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, walks at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A U.S. Capitol Police officer stands watch as lawmakers leave the House of Representatives after voting on an interim spending bill to avoid
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
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