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It’s back to school time on Capitol Hill.
But not really until next week.
What?
Even though millions of kids returned to school just after Labor Day, the end of August, or, in some cases, even earlier in August, Congress still isn’t in session yet for the fall term.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: WHAT THE END OF THE YEAR LOOKS LIKE IN CONGRESS
That comes on Monday, September 9. That’s when the House and Senate come back for legislative action for the first time in more than a month. The Senate last voted on August 1. The House was supposed to be in session until then as well. But the House shaved an entire week off its schedule in July, abandoning Washington a week earlier.
But things around the Capitol are starting to return to normal.
And yours truly – along with some members of the Congressional press corps – began filtering back into the Capitol this week.
Reporters and staffers alike are returning to Capitol Hill and falling back into the congressional groove as both chambers’ recesses draw to a close. (Aaron Schwartz/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
My mother taught second grade for decades in Ohio. And she would usually return to school for a few days in late August for meetings and to prepare her room for the new school year.
So, some Congressional aides, the administrative staff and some reporters came back to the Capitol this week to “prepare their rooms” for the new school year.
But the analogies of Congress returning to session just like students filing back into the classroom is imperfect. This isn’t the start of a new Congress. People don’t have new teachers and new lockers. There aren’t new kids from other schools. The promise and energy of opportunity associated with a new year doesn’t permeate the air. Everything is pretty much the same as it was on Capitol Hill in September as it was in July. The “true” start of the “school year” comes at noon on January 3, 2025 when they swear-in the 119th Congress. That’s when new people appear….
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