WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress gets back to work Monday after a two-week vacation, and it’s looking like lawmakers will do what they do best: the bare minimum.
Forget immigration, a tax overhaul, stiffer gun checks. They’re all DOA.
Raising the minimum wage or restoring lost unemployment benefits? Nope.
The only things likely to become law in a Congress bitterly divided between House Republicans and the Democratic-led Senate are those items that simply have to pass.
That’s a short, short list.
It gets even shorter if you leave off things that can wait until a postelection lame-duck session.
Atop the list is a short-term spending bill to keep the government running past the Oct. 1 start of the new budget year, and legislation to replenish the almost-empty Highway Trust Fund.
