With the US Congress returning in what Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott describes as "a political partisan mode" after its month-long vacation, various experts feel that only the bare minimum will be accomplished before it breaks again to campaign for re-election.
However, before the recess at the end of this month or the beginning of October, Congress will have to complete work on the appropriations legislation needed to keep the government running past the October 1 beginning of the new financial year. In contrast to the confrontation which resulted in two government shutdowns earlier this year, Republican leaders have said that they plan to reach a compromise with the Administration over these issues.
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle is slightly more ambitious, and plans to push a Democratic action agenda which includes health security (especially legislation guaranteeing women at least two nights in the hospital after childbirth). However, no-one expects major legislation on the order of the welfare reform or insurance portability bill that became law last month. "There's not a lot of big-picture items left in the brief time they have remaining," according to Sara Binder of the Brookings Institution.
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