Before leaving Washington for the August recess, the Senate advanced the annual legislative branch spending bill. The measure proposes $4.97 billion in spending on the upper chamber and the various legislative branch agencies, an increase of $257 million, or 5.4%, from this year.

The bill amounts to a rebuke of the lower spending proposed by appropriators in the House of Representatives. But this is no big spending bill. Most of the various legislative branch agencies will receive funding lower than they requested.