After a chaotic Congress, lawmakers return home to campaign for another term

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is on hold campaign seasonas parliamentarians from one of the the most chaotic and unproductive legislative sessions in modern times they try to convince voters to keep them in their jobs.

House Republicans led the tumult — handpicking their speaker in a bitter public quarrel then quickly pulling him from the desksomething never seen before. But the one Senate deeply divided he was not immune to inaction, passing heavily a modest agenda.

Taken together, the lack of high-profile accomplishments underscores a volatile election season since November control of Congress a throw up.

“The good thing is that Congress hasn’t allowed a lot to pass,” said Ryan Zinke, a former Trump administration cabinet secretary who is now running for re-election to his Montana House seat. “But what she hasn’t done either is she hasn’t lived up to her potential.”

House Republicans blocked not only the Democrats’ Biden-Harris priorities, he said, but “in many ways, we blocked our own agenda.”

The plight of lawmakers, especially House Republicans trying to hold onto their slim majority control, is not academic. House Republicans must now face the voters who sent them to Washington on their way “Commitment to America” two years ago, being very short.

The President of the New Chamber Mike Johnson remains optimistic that Republicans will not only retain control but win more seats to bolster their ranks, but it was a load up for him during a difficult election year.

“It’s almost impossible,” said Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, adding that he would have little patience to listen to the “idiots” he said Johnson must face to command a slim four-seat majority.

“You’ve grown a group in the House Republican Party that thinks voting no and doing nothing is a victory,” Gingrich said on Capitol Hill on Friday. “You have to find a way to break the idea that being a nihilist and doing nothing is success. It is not.”

Congress passed fewer substantive bills than normal, putting this two-year session on track to be among the least productive sessions ever. Representatives and senators returned to Washington for a brief three-week work period in September and essentially accomplished one of their most important tasks, federal government fundingfor a few more months, until December.

While Congress managed to avoid a federal shutdown — which Johnson said would have been “malpractice” so close to the November election — it left town midweek, days earlier than scheduled, as a the hurricane has gone down on the southern Gulf states. He won’t be back until mid-November.

“Can anyone in America name a single thing that House Republicans have done on their own to make life better for the American people?” the Democratic leader asked Hakeem Jeffrieswho is on track to become Speaker of the House if his party wins majority control. “The answer is no.”

Many lawmakers were upset with what happened in their GOP House majority. There was a week-long battle in January 2023 to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. And the spectacle of nearly a month, when a small number of far-right Republicans left him from the speaker’s office. And failed bills that never made it off the House floor.

Those seeking re-election in some of the most contested House districts have offered a preview of the conversations they will have with voters.

Rep. Aaron Bean, Republican of Florida, said he would focus on his work on constituent services and his voting results.

“I don’t know if you’re going to judge an individual member by how the body behaves collectively,” said Bean, a freshman. “I don’t think it’s a fair comparison. That’s apples to apricots.”

Rep. Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., said the House was a “bulwark” against the spending.

“What we’ve been able to stop is very significant,” he said.

“I didn’t necessarily go through everything,” he added. “But what we’ve done is set a template for what needs to be done to solve these problems, whether it’s the border, the economy, national security, investment in the military, tax cuts, spending cuts.”

Republican Mike Lawler, who is in a competitive race in New York, highlighted the work he has done to secure infrastructure money for his district as well as his various bills. One that passed the House and Senate last week directs the US Secret Service to protect Donald Trump and other major party presidential nominees by the same standards as the president.

“So I have a record I’m proud of,” he said.

Besides, Lawler asked, what about the Senate?

“I mean the emphasis is always on the House,” he said. “But if anyone looked down the hall, what did Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate do? What exactly are they running on?”

The Senate, historically a slower-moving body designed that way by the founders, moved at an even more leisurely pace this year, staying away from Washington for many months and almost every Friday.

Closely led by Democrats under Majority Leader Schumer, the Senate managed to confirm a number of Biden’s judicial nomineesespecially women and people of color, to create a justice system that is more representative of the nation. But senators failed to achieve many other big priorities.

In fact, one of the most discussed pieces of legislation in the campaign – that of the Senate bipartisan effort to secure the US-Mexico border and update some immigration laws — collapsed when Trump refused to support it.

“This has been a very, very unproductive Congress,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, noting that appropriations bills and a farm bill reauthorization are stalled. There is “a lot of blame to spread.”

Oddly, as the Capitol emptied, it filled briefly Friday for the 30th anniversary of another Republican milestone — the 1994 Contract with America, the campaign promises that brought Gingrich and his party to power after four decades in the minority.

Two years ago, McCarthy, who would become speaker, gathered House Republicans in a factory along Pennsylvania’s Monongahela River to unveil his own “Commitment to America” ​​agenda, which gave a nod was Gingrich. GOP rising stars, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, were in the front row.

McCarthy, Johnson and many others in today’s House GOP were not around for Friday’s ceremony, with its reception in the Capitol basement.

Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who was among eight Republicans who led the vote to oust McCarthy last year, said it was the House GOP majority’s greatest achievement: “Stop destroying the country. We don’t need any more laws.”

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Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.