Congress is heading into a compressed summer schedule, and the clock is already louder than the debate. The House and Senate are likely to be out of session for all but a day in August, leaving lawmakers with a narrow window to finish business before the government’s fiscal year expires at 11:59:59 p.m. ET on Sept. 30.
That deadline is why Rick Scott and other lawmakers are drawing attention now, even as both chambers try to carve out campaign time before the midterms. The calendar is especially tight in the House, which will meet through July 2 before heading away, while the Senate stays on the floor this week as the House is out.
chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram said President Donald Trump wants to link an extension of the FISA anti-terror surveillance law to voter ID legislation, the SAVE America Act. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has said he doubts that kind of package can work, while Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Trump’s move deeply reckless. Those fights matter because the government does not get an extension by habit; it gets one only if the House and Senate can agree on a path before the deadline.
The squeeze is not theoretical. Last year ended with a record 43-day comprehensive government shutdown, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle know how quickly a standoff can harden once the calendar runs short. The House was already sent out for its August recess a day early in mid-July after adopting the One Big Beautiful Bill, which underscored how quickly floor time can disappear when leaders decide to move on.
Tom Cole, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, wants action, but the shape of that action has not been spelled out. That is the real problem for Congress now: lawmakers want to rush home in the fall to campaign before the midterms, yet the month they need for that is the same month they need to keep Washington open. Congress is already past its legislative equivalent of the Dog Days of August, and the next hard stop is Sept. 30.
If leaders do not settle on a funding strategy before then, the shutdown risk becomes immediate instead of theoretical. The question left on Capitol Hill is not whether the deadline exists; it is whether the House and Senate can agree on anything before it arrives.
