Despite the plethora of issues Congress will be addressing this legislative year, the leadership has created a compressed election-year schedule, allowing very little time for actual work to be done. Congress will devote 72 days this year to work on legislative business. (Remeber: votes are generally only held Tuesday - Thursday of any given week). They are scheduled to recess for the year on October 6 in order to give lawmakers up for re-election a full month in which to campaign back in their districts.

When Mondays and Fridays are included, Congress will be in session for 125 days; the lowest number of days in any legislative session in the past 20 years. In fact, since 1985 Congress has averaged 151.8 legislative days per year. The extremely brief schedule for 2006 may make it difficult for Congress to finish any of its appropriations bills before the start of the fiscal year on October 1 - a task they struggle with even with significantly more time. It will most likely result in a number of the bills being rolled into an omnibus, a bad legislative practice that reduces oversite and accountability in the appropriations process.