When I was a kid I was a master at procrastination when it came to school work. I would delay and dally until I had absolutely no choice but to do whatever work was waiting. My parents pleaded, implored, cajoled, railed, they even bribed, to no avail most of the time. Usually the work got done, sometimes not, and usually it was just passable.
So what happened to kids like me? Apparently a lot of them are in Congress.
Congress left town this week for the month of August. When they return after Labor Day they might just turn around and leave again. Why? Because all the tough calls they couldn’t make before August will still be here when they get back and with even less time to get it all it done. What remains is every spending bill for FY 2016, the debt ceiling, highway bill reauthorization and funding, finding bridge funding for the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program, whose trust fund runs dry in a year and voting on the Iran agreement, among other issues.
Now to be fair there were tough reasons why some of these issues have remained until last minute. The controversy over flags, for example, stopped every House appropriations bill dead in its tracks. But then again, these folks are supposed to make tough decisions, unlike me when I was in the fifth grade.
While Congress is home, take a few minutes to tell them to get their work done—procrastinating is for kids. We’ll be on top of them as well and you can help as crunch time approaches by signing up for our legislative action center. Don’t procrastinate!
