Will the House Reconvene – Briefly – Next Week?

The Hill newspaper reports that the House may interrupt its summer recess and reconvene briefly, perhaps early next week, to pass a bill that would provide funds to states to avoid teacher layoffs.

With schools around the nation set to begin classes before the House is currently scheduled to return on September 14, there is pressure for the House to come back into session to deal with this issue. The Senate is expected to pass the bill this week, having succeeded in voting to end debate earlier today according to The Hill. The bill gives states $10 billion for teachers as well as $16 billion in Medicaid funding.

Previous efforts to pass it as part of larger measures have failed because of opposition to legislation that would increase the deficit. The Hill quotes an aide to House Minority Leader John Boehner as opposing the bill and the idea of the House returning to pass it, saying that Democrats should listen to their constitutents’ concerns about jobs and not “vote for more tax hikes and special-interest bailouts.” The vote in the Senate to end debate was 61-38, with all Democrats and two Republicans (Maine’s Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins) voting in favor. The Hill reports that the two Republican votes were secured after the bill’s sponsors found offsets for the full cost of the bill.

Congress Daily (subscription required) reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced via Twitter that she will indeed call the House back into session next week “to save teachers’ jobs and help seniors and children.”

Editor’s Note: This story is not directly related to space policy, but we thought you would be interested to know about this breaking development anyway.