WASHINGTON — The quarrelsome House couldn't even agree on whether to formally adjourn, but that didn't stop Congress from taking five weeks off.

Coming up are weeks of campaigning to keep their jobs, the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions and a return in September to face the same issues, some of real consequence to the nation's future, that they've left unresolved.

The difficulties of bridging the partisan gap were in evidence on their last day, when lawmakers were unable to agree on two pressing problems: how to help livestock producers suffering from widespread drought and how to protect critical industries from cyberattacks launched by terrorists or other enemies.

The GOP-led House narrowly approved a bill to revive expired disaster relief programs for cattle and sheep farmers who have seen the price of feed soar because of drought damage to corn and other crops. But the Senate, controlled by Democrats, sidestepped action on the bill, saying it was insufficient and that the House should instead consider a comprehensive five-year farm policy bill that the Senate passed in June.

The Senate also reached an impasse on legislation to bring the government and businesses together to protect the nation's infrastructure from cyberattacks. The main stumbling block was the role the Homeland Security Department and other federal agencies should play in protecting U.S. businesses.

Republicans blocked further consideration of the Senate bill, supported by the White House, saying it would lead to Washington imposing a heavy hand on the private sector without substantially reducing risks. Both parties said they were committed to approving a final bill when they return in September, although bridging differences in their approaches will not be easy.

On its final vote Thursday, the House capped off its summer of dysfunction by rejecting a procedural motion on adjournment. Every Democrat and a third of Republicans voted against it: Democrats, as they made their exits, said the House shouldn't leave without doing something about the looming tax cut showdown, while some Republicans are concerned that President Barack Obama will make recess appointments if Congress is officially not in session.

Before departing, lawmakers highlighted those differences on taxes that will dominate the congressional scene this fall. The Senate Finance Committee, on a bipartisan vote, approved a $200 billion-plus package to renew dozens of tax breaks for businesses such as biodiesel and wind energy producers. On the other side of the Capitol, the House voted mainly along party lines to pass legislation putting the House on record in support of tax reform that would lower the top income tax rate to 25 percent and end some of the types of special interest tax breaks included in the Senate measure.

Senate Finance Committee members defended their actions, saying they had succeeded in eliminating almost 20 existing tax breaks. Among those being allowed to expire was a tax credit for ethanol producers. The annual package of special interest tax credits had grown from 42 items in 1998 to 154 last year.

Taxes will take center stage this fall when Congress must decide how to handle the Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year. The Senate has joined President Barack Obama in calling for the termination of those tax cuts for people earning more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000.

The House on Wednesday voted to fully renew the expiring tax cuts.

Also on the agenda is what to do about $110 billion in automatic spending cuts to the Pentagon and domestic programs that will occur in January, the result of the failure of the congressional supercommittee commissioned last year to come up with a deficit-reduction plan. Economists worry that the inability of Congress to find common ground on the tax cuts and the automatic spending cuts could force the nation over a "fiscal cliff," driving the economy back into recession.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, approved a $604 billion defense spending plan for next year that is $29 billion less than current spending but reverses proposed Pentagon cuts in Air Force personnel and equipment. The committee rejected a Republican proposal that would have required defense contractors to send out notices of possible job layoffs related to the automatic cuts just before the November presidential election.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., were able to put off one impending disaster when they reached an agreement last week on extending federal programs for six months, averting a possible government shutdown when the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., issued a statement that, if the Senate was willing to go along, the House was prepared to bring up legislation in September to approve permanent normal trade relations with Russia. Russia is set to join the World Trade Organization on Aug. 22 and unless Congress removes current trade restrictions, U.S. businesses will not be able to take advantage of lowered trade barriers that will accompany Russia's entrance into the WTO.

The House also began its day Thursday on a united if somber note, voting by voice to reprimand one of its own, California Democrat Laura Richardson, for forcing her congressional staff to do campaign work and violating codes of conduct for government service.

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  • Nuts Bring Buckets of Same

    Just in case anyone forgot that the House Judiciary Committee ACORN hearing was a House Judiciary Committee hearing about ACORN, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/02/acorn-hearing-a-barrel-of_n_376882.html">Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) helpfully brought a bucket of acorns</a> to the House Judiciary Committee. Also that day, colleague Lamar Smith praising the "turnout so early in the day" at 2:30pm, and Louie Gohmert offering up the malaprop: “From one acorn, many nuts can grow.” Like, say, Peter King.

  • Hello Kitty, Hello Revolving Debt

    Credit cards. Were it not for them, we would have to save up money in order to buy things. But do some credit cards take it too far, marketing to the youths? Byron Dorgan thought so when he saw the Hello Kitty Platinum VISA. "Does it seem to you like they’re targeting that 10-year-old, the 14-year-old." Ha! He should see the <a href="http://www.shopinprivate.com/hello-kitty-pink-guilty.html">Hello Kitty vibrator</a>.

  • "I'll See Your Baby, And Raise You Two Tweens"

    Last time out, we made mention of Representative John Shadegg's (R-Ariz.) attempt to wield a baby in order to make a point about how terrible health care reform was. We neglected to mention that Representative Pete Stark (D-Calif.) took it a step further, and attempted to bring two young children to make his own points about health care (5:25 in video), at which point the House was officially barred from trafficking in human props any further.

  • John Thune's Stackin' Dollars

    How much is too much stimulus? When it allows representatives to make junior high math analogies based on topography and astronomy, maybe. Here, Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) makes some stupid pictures of dollar stacks that extend into the sky, to the celestial firmament itself. “If you took 100 dollar bills, Mr. President," Thune said, "and stacked them on top of each other you would have a stack that goes 689 miles high.” He added, "In other words, if you took the 100 dollar bills and not stacked them on top of each other, but wrapped them side-by-side all around the earth… If you could believe this, it’d go around the earth almost 39 times." So, we cannot stimulate the economy, because of science! (1:15 in clip)

  • Gettin' High On Your Own Supply (Of A Substance That Does Not Get You High)

    Representative Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) wasn't having any of that whole "regulating tobacco" stuff. Why? Because it's "not the nicotine that kills, it's the smoke!" So, he argued, why don't we regulate lettuce, to keep people from smoking lettuce? Wouldn't that prevent a "pandemic" of cancers? This would have been a good point, were it not for the non-existence of either a massive industry geared toward curing lettuce and rolling it into cigarettes, or a target market of consumers who were even remotely interested in smoking lettuce. BUT YEAH OTHER THAT ALL THAT STUFF (and the fact that nicotine is addictive) STEVE BUYER IS A GENIUS.

  • And Now, A Poem From Ted Poe

    From Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas): <i>It came on two pages, It has withstood the ages. / The word "shall,'' is only 10 times mentioned, But enough to get one's attention. / No taxes did this law raise, To this day it continues to create much praise; / Two great religions does it claim, The "Law of the Ten Commandments'' is its name. / A current writing, 1,990 pages long, Has a socialist philosophy that is all wrong; / Difficult for the people to understand, And troubling what big government doth demand. / Over 3,445 "shalls'' it does loudly shout, New massive taxes does it proudly tout; / Written in secret by the bureaucrats, For exclusive use of the taxacrats. / The Congressional bill called "Health Care Reform," Is illusionary, the authors are still ill-informed; / Government ought not take over America's health biz. / And that's just the way it is."</i> And so, America, this is why you should have to die of easily treated medical conditions.

  • And Now, An Even Dumber Poem, From Roland Burris

    From the junior senator from Illinois: <i>"It was the night before Christmas, and all through the Senate / The right held up our health care bill, no matter what was in it / The people had voted a mandated reform / But Republicans blew off the gathering storm / We'll clog up the Senate, they cried with a grin / And in the midterm elections, we'll get voted in / They knew regular folks needed help right this second / But fundraisers, lobbyists and politics beckoned / So try as they might, Democrats could not win / Because the majority was simply too thin / Then across every state there rose such a clatter / The whole senate rushed out to see what was the matter / All sprang up from their desk and ran from the floor / Straight through the cloakroom and right out the door."</i> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/22/burris-backs-reform-with_n_400456.html">There's more</a>, but you will probably want to shoot yourself in the face after you read it.

  • Chuck Grassley Goes All Aggro On The Speaker Box

    For some reason, in the course of discussing fuel efficiency standards, Senator Chuck Grassley decided he should drive his point home by shouting out Ashton Kutcher and his movie, "Dude, Where's My Car." Prior to this, Grassley went on an <a href="http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Speech_by_GOP_Senator_references_stoner_0924.html">extended monologue</a> about Pink Floyd's <i>Dark Side of the Moon</i> album and the shards of a broken prism and the "multishades" of light. Just straight up tripping balls, in the well of the Senate. Anyway, as you now know, this TOTALLY fixed fuel efficiency standards!

  • Sam Brownback Will Save Your Inanimate Genetic Material

    Who's looking out for your precious bodily fluids? Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, that's who. And he's enlisted the help of a young girl, named Hannah, who has the power of talking to human embryos! "<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/18/brownback-embryo/">Are you going to kill me?</a>" the embryos asked Hannah, who immediately scrawled a picture of this conversation on a giant piece of posterboard, so that Sam Brownback could stop people from killing the stem cells. And then Sam Brownback went on to support a bunch of wars in the Middle East!

  • The Most Important Prop Of All

    James Inhofe (R-Batshit) hates him some gay marriage, and the gays in general. And to make his point, he carries around with him The Most Important Prop in America: a picture of his family. "As you see here, and I think this is maybe the most important prop we’ll have during the entire debate, my wife and I have been married 47 years. We have 20 kids and grandkids. I’m really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family, we’ve never had a divorce or any kind of homosexual relationship." Ha! THAT HE KNOWS OF!