The House Calendar

With the House now officially back in session, they so notified the President and Senate yesterday, it is appropriate to look at the official calendar for the coming year. This document is the plan for when the House will meet in Washington and when individual members will be working back home in their district on the ‘people’s business’ and maybe some time on getting re-elected (Sarcasm alert).

As we saw last year the House plans on ‘working in their districts’ for at least one full week out of every month this year. Additionally we see the Easter recess (Mar. 30^th thru April 13^th) the Summer recess (Aug. 6^th thru Sep. 7^th) and the Election recess (Oct.8^th thru Nov. 12^th). All in all, the House plans on meeting in Washington on only 28 week this year; and only two of those will be five-day weeks (Sep. 10-14 and Oct. 1-5).

Interestingly, this being an election year, the House Majority Leader (who sets and publishes this calendar) already has plans for an extensive Lame Duck session with Washington meetings to be held thru December 14^th with a week off for Thanksgiving.

As always, circumstances alter cases. It would not be unusual for the home week at the end of September or the week before Christmas, for instance, to be interrupted for action on budget bills or continuing resolutions. It would be unusual, however, for any of the Washington days to be eliminated.