Reid threatens recess, Christmas

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid is using his final weeks as majority leader to threaten one of lawmakers’ most valuable assets: Recess.

Facing down a daunting list of tasks, ranging from funding the government past Dec. 11 to approving a number of new ambassadors, and less than two weeks to do it before Congress’s target adjournment at the end of next week, the Nevada Democrat said that the lame duck Congress’s work may require senators to stay in Washington for an extra week — and may even threaten Christmas.


“We may have to be here a third week and everyone should understand that. Our most important task at hand is to pass bills to fund out government, keep it from shutting down,” Reid said on Monday afternoon shortly after the Senate began its last work period of the 113th Congress.

“We have a lot to do. And there isn’t much time to accomplish it. I urge all senators to work hard to complete our work in a timely and efficient fashion. We may have to be here the week before Christmas … and hopefully, not into the Christmas holiday,” he added.

Reid’s remarks serve more as a motivational tool than a definitive schedule change. He has threatened weekend work this year when Congress’s work piles up — but the Senate rarely works Fridays, much less Saturdays and Sundays. On July 31, for example, Reid warned that “there will be no weekends off” in September. But the Senate worked for just eight days total and there was no work on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays.

However, more work is piled up during the lame duck than in September, when incumbent lawmakers were itching to get on the midterm election trail. And to motivate his troops this time around, Reid even threatened to be a Christmas Grinch — though Congress would have to add a fourth week to the December calendar to begin threatening that holiday.

In addition to funding the government, lawmakers in both chambers are attempting to cobble together a deal on expired tax breaks, extend the Internet moratorium tax and pass a defense authorization bill. And Senate Democrats are moving to approve as many of President Barack Obama’s nominees as possible before losing control of the Senate — and the nomination process — in January.