Reid: December session ‘may be necessary’

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday
that senators may need to return for a December session with the chamber stalled on a rescue package for the automobile industry. 

In opening remarks on the Senate floor, Reid said that
senators he has spoken with want all work to be completed this week so the chamber
won’t have to reconvene until Jan. 6.

“But that may not be possible,” Reid warned.

{mosads}He said that senators and staff are having trouble making
travel arrangements to return in December, but that they may be asked to return
to Capitol Hill for a final month of action before the 110th Congress
concludes.

“So it may be necessary [that] we come back after
Thanksgiving and I will need an opportunity to converse with my Republican
counterpart, but I will do that,” Reid said.

He has failed to follow through on threats for weekend
sessions on numerous occasions, but his latest warning comes just days after he
dismissed the idea. When asked Tuesday if a December session was possible, Reid
said: “Perish the thought.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) also has said
that a December session is “possible.”

A compromise car-industry bailout package is in the
works, but it’s not clear whether there is enough support in the Senate to
inject billions of dollars into the failing Big Three auto companies. Reid said
that the Senate will hold a procedural vote either Thursday or Friday on an
extension of unemployment benefits.