Back to business: Biden tours country and prepares for battle with Congress away
Haisten Willis
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Bidencation is over.
President Joe Biden returns to a relatively quiet Washington on Monday, and he’ll be staying busy even with Congress in recess until Labor Day.
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The president will travel to three Western states promoting his “Bidenomics” push, various Cabinet members are fanning out to make their own speeches, and Biden will likely be in touch with members of Congress as well due to a looming budget showdown in September.
“The president is back at work while Congress stays at play,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said. “Now that he’s back in the White House, his priority is to grid for the big budget battle with House Republicans that will suck up all the oxygen after Labor Day.”
Biden will have “lots of calls with Senators to shore up opposition to draconian spending cuts in the House,” Bannon added, while “reaching out to Democratic progressives and Republican moderates in the House to bring them in line.”
The White House responded to questions from the Washington Examiner about Biden’s August schedule by pointing back to previously announced travel plans.
Cabinet members like Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg began traveling last week to talk up the administration’s work.
Biden will join them this week with stops in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah to tout the Inflation Reduction Act. He’ll do the same at an event hosted at the White House on Aug. 16.
While the president has been zinged for his frequent vacations — the Republican National Committee’s tracker says he hit 365 full or partial vacation days last Friday — he’s bucking something of a historical trend by working most of August.
“All presidents go on vacation in August because Washington goes on vacation in August,” presidential historian Craig Shirley said.
Presidents in the past often spent the entire month on vacation along with Congress. This practice originally owed to the sweltering summer heat of swampy Washington, which Shirley says was by design.
“The Founding Fathers chose the location of the capital for a lot of reasons,” he said. “One was so the government officials wouldn’t want to meet for too long. British diplomats used to get hazard pay for being posted in Washington.”
All of that has changed thanks to air conditioning and flood control measures, plus modern communication technology means the president can reach any member of Congress whenever he wants. But no House or Senate votes will be taken at least until the members are back in person in the district.
That doesn’t mean the many executive branch agencies, which are often derided by conservatives as the unaccountable fourth branch of government, will take a break. A host of new rules and regulations will continue making their way through the implementation process this month, including the Department of Transportation’s new fuel economy standards that would require a fleetwide average of 58 miles per gallon for cars and light-duty trucks by 2032.
Biden is likely to make a few campaign stops and fundraisers throughout the month, though his biggest priority may be preparing for September’s budget showdown.
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Lawmakers will have an 18-day window to pass all of their spending bills or risk a government shutdown. Biden will be sure to wield the power of his veto to try and counter the wishes of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Congress has until the end of September to pass an annual budget before the new fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. The House did pass one of the 12 appropriations bills before leaving town for recess, while the Senate has yet to advance any, putting the two chambers on separate timelines when they return to Capitol Hill next month.