Congress breaks for summer recess with little to show

It is perhaps fitting in these dog days of summer for Congress to seemingly be chasing its tail as it wends its way into its month-long recess.

It’s not that both houses haven’t been doing things in their run-ups to the summer break. They have. It’s just that they don’t seem to be going anywhere or getting much done together.

The same issues keep popping-up repeatedly, from the Iran war and border enforcement to election law changes and natural disasters. It must leave many Americans wondering whether they are caught in a perpetual loop of summer reruns.

It could be maddening if you didn’t know that the congressional process is intentionally designed to consider similar issues multiple times through the authorization and appropriations processes.

This seeming hurly-burly is especially evident during the final sprint to a new fiscal year with biennial elections close on its heels. Every House member running for re-election, and as many as one-third of senators, have skin in the game. None want to be stripped of their seats. That is why so much attention is focused this year on the budgeting controversies — it’s where the money and power are.

Whereas the authorization process sets policy priorities and overall levels of spending, the appropriations process provides for the actual amounts to be spent. A budget resolution each fiscal year establishes allocations for the 12 appropriations bills, which theoretically must be enacted by the beginning of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.

While the House Appropriations Committee has already........

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