Scurry Up and Wait

With August recess looming, Congress pushes energy, climate, water bills

Know how, when you're about to go on vacation, you suddenly realize you have a ton of work to do, so you scramble to finish it all, and you do kind of a half-assed job, but you promise yourself you'll deal with the loose ends when you get back? Hellooooo, Congress. With the four-week August recess starting Monday, the House and Senate have been getting bizzy. The House is debating its version of the energy bill today; to move things along, House leaders skirted a discussion over fuel economy, but will revisit the idea in September. Yesterday, Sens. John Warner (R-Va.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) unveiled plans for a climate bill that would cut greenhouse-gas emissions 70 percent by 2050; they'll draft the bill in ... September. And Wednesday night, the House passed a $20 billion national water bill that includes funding for projects in Louisiana, California, Florida, and elsewhere; President Bush has threatened a veto, but Congress can likely override it. Eh, they can deal with that later.