Congress on Summer Break, Crucial Legislation on Hold

Lawmakers in Washington applauded themselves on July 28 for reaching a $17 billion bipartisan deal to ease long waits at veterans’ hospitals. If passed by the House and Senate and signed by the president, it will create 27 Veterans Affairs facilities and expand the types of non-VA hospitals and clinics where veterans can receive care. It will also give the VA secretary more authority to fire senior executives. Yet as members of Congress pack up for their five-week summer vacation—sorry, “district work period”—they leave behind a number of problems that won’t just go away in their absence.

The flash of bipartisanship that led to the vets deal has devolved into dispiriting election-year sniping over what to do about the tens of thousands of unaccompanied children illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. House Republicans have proposed a stopgap plan to spend about $659 million to fund security at the border through September. The federal government would reimburse states that send the National Guard to patrol the Southwestern border.