The House of Representatives meets this week before taking a five-week break. At the top of the agenda is more work on budget bills for running the federal Government.
Congressperson Chellie Pingree, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, says the House just completed work on the sixth of 12 bills on the table.
“We had some serious disagreements on it, but the good news is at least the process is moving forward, and we have had several areas of agreement with the republicans and, these days, we will take what we can get,” said Pingree.
Pingree says more work will be done on the budget this week, but lawmakers will have only a month when they return to finish work on the budget bills and iron out differences with the Senate. The Senate plans on meeting into August to get its work done.
“Usually we struggle with what gets passed in the House and, frankly, hope the Senate fixes it for us,” Pingree said. “Mostly I think we are just hoping we can finish the process and don’t have a government shutdown on October 1.”
