Congress to return after month long break with a lot to address

WASHINGTON (KFYR) - Congress is still on its month-long break. However, they will be heading back to Washington after Labor Day. They are returning with many items on the agenda that need to be addressed by the end of September like the Farm Bill, Defense Authorization Act and Appropriations Bills.

Senator Kevin Cramer said he does not see any of these getting done by the September 30 deadline. He said he thinks all of it will get done by December 31. Cramer said he expects an extension of funding, the Farm Bill and the Defense Authorization Act. He said around the third or fourth week of September, they will be voting on a package that would extend all of those items.

“And I would expect that will take us to sometime around the holidays, and whether we do something before Thanksgiving, or between Thanksgiving and Christmas. More likely, we’ll have to take all those items up in a condensed process,” said Cramer.

Cramer said the sooner they can get started, the better. He said the good news is the appropriations bills are pretty much all out of the committee — the one that is not concerns agriculture. Cramer said the Defense Authorization Act is out of both the House and Senate Committees. However, the Farm Bill is harder because there is a Democrat and Republican version and both have not been brought together by the committees.