Congress leaves Washington with unfinished business

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Congress exited a sweltering Washington on Thursday, its dysfunction on full display as it left behind must-do legislation to combat the mosquito-borne Zika virus and a stalemate over lawmakers’ basic job of fulfilling agency budgets.

The twin failures highlighted the one step forward, two steps back nature of the bitterly-divided Congress, even as Senate Majority Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan trumpeted victories on drug-abuse legislation and other, more modest bills. But a continuing impasse over the Pentagon budget sent McConnell’s effort to revive the process for advancing annual spending bills off the rails.

When lawmakers return from their vacation after Labor Day, a stopgap funding bill that’s needed to prevent a government shutdown will be the main order of business before Congress recesses again for the fall campaign.

Calls by Democrats for modest curbs on guns sales went unheeded as lawmakers embarked on a seven-week vacation extended by the national political conventions this month. Democratic nominee-to-be Hillary Clinton paid a visit to Senate Democrats amid new polls showing a tightening race against Donald Trump.

As the last act before lawmakers sped away from the Capitol, Senate Democrats again blocked a $1.1 billion take-it-or-leave-it Zika measure drafted by Republicans controlling Congress, protesting a provision that would block Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico from receiving money to fight the virus, which can cause severe birth defects and can be transmitted by mosquitoes native to much of the country.