House leaves for six-week August recess

House members left Washington on Thursday evening for their six-week summer recess, a day earlier than originally scheduled, after capping off an intense work period.

Before leaving, lawmakers voted to pass a budget deal — which includes a two-year extension of the debt limit — and to grant temporary protected status for Venezuelan migrants, making them the last votes for the summer.

The House isn’t scheduled to be back in session until Sept. 9.

{mosads}Thursday marked the last day of a July work period filled with divided Democrats attempting to bridge their internal differences, emotional floor debate over condemning President Trump’s tweets targeting four progressive freshman congresswomen and one lawmaker forcing a vote on impeachment.

House members also started their recess a day after former special counsel Robert Mueller testified before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees about his investigation into Russian election interference and whether the Trump administration had obstructed justice.

So far, just a handful of Democrats have announced support for an impeachment inquiry following Mueller’s testimony, including Reps. Lori Trahan (Mass.), Peter DeFazio (Ore.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (Del.) and Katherine Clark (Mass.).

Democrats who’ve long pushed for impeachment are hoping that they can keep up their push to draw the public’s attention to what’s in the Mueller report while they’re back in their districts.

“Our constituents are all going to ask about this. And it will be a wonderful opportunity to continue to educate people about what’s in the Mueller report,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a Judiciary Committee member and co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

House Democratic leaders left some legislative items unfinished before leaving for the break.

Last week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution from Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) to affirm support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

There had been discussions among Democrats about considering it on the floor this week along with another resolution expressing opposition to the global boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

The House easily passed the resolution opposing BDS on Tuesday by a vote of 398-17. But 16 mostly progressive Democrats voted against it, arguing it went against free speech, while another four voted “present.”

But Democratic leaders ultimately opted against bringing up Lowenthal’s resolution because it says that “only” a two-state solution can resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

“I’m trying to get language that I think will be acceptable to the broadest number of people and Republicans as well,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters on Wednesday.

Lowenthal called the decision not to vote on his resolution this week “really disappointing.” He said he suspected the upcoming Israeli elections in September played a role in delaying consideration of his resolution.

“Everybody’s into a two-state solution. That’s not the issue. I think the issue is the United States playing a leadership role and trying to bring people together by being fair to both sides,” Lowenthal said.

“I thought that this was something that would bring us together. We had people who had signed from all parts of the caucus. All parts,” Lowenthal said.

Members of the Blue Dog Coalition, meanwhile, had threatened to sign on to a GOP discharge petition to force a vote on Senate legislation to allow state and local governments to refuse to do business with companies that boycott Israel if the BDS resolution wasn’t considered before the August recess.

The House also adjourned without taking action on legislation from Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) to overhaul migrant detention policies, which still needed buy-in from the whole caucus.

But the House did pass legislation on Wednesday from Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) to establish standards of care for migrants under Customs and Border Protection custody.

House passage of the budget deal brokered primarily by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin now sends the legislation to the Senate, which is expected to consider it next week.

When lawmakers return in September, they’ll have only a few weeks to pass legislation to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1.

While the budget deal establishes top-line spending numbers, lawmakers still need to pass appropriations bills to actually fund government agencies.