Congress faces many issues, not much time

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- A host of high-profile issues likely will push out the U.S. Congress's work calendar beyond its scheduled adjournment at the end of October, lawmakers say.

Healthcare reform, an ambitious climate-change bill, financial regulatory reform and funding the federal government for fiscal year 2010 are among the matters vying for lawmakers' time and attention since their return from the August recess, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

"I think it's a very full fall agenda," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said recently, calling 2009 "one of the most issue-filled, substantive years" in his nearly three decades in Congress.

Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, raised the possibility that the "extremely ambitious schedule ... will keep us here probably until December."

A huge chunk of the fall calendar will be filled by appropriation bills for federal departments. The House has passed all 12 of its spending measures, but the Senate moved only four -- and none has emerged from conference negotiations.

"What we'd like to do is see if we can pass four or five conference reports prior to the end of September," Hoyer said, which could lead to passage of short-term continuing resolutions to keep government funded, then approval of the remaining appropriations bills by the end of October.