WASHINGTON (AP) - Rushing toward the exits, Congress on Thursday scrambled to wrap up legislation addressing the troubled Veterans Affairs Department and a looming shortfall in highway money. House Republicans unexpectedly put off a vote on a border security bill as tea partyers withdrew their support.
On the final day before a five-week summer break, Congress was leaving a long list of unfinished business after 18 months of bitter partisanship. Democrats cast Republicans as the obstacle; Republicans said President Barack Obama has been missing in action.
"We've not had a productive Congress," acknowledged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Obama has chosen to raise money in Hollywood rather than work with Congress.
The institutional split between a Republican-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate has added up to inaction, especially in a midterm election year with control of the Senate at stake.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, underscored the political divide, describing any attempt by Senate Democrats to add parts of a year-old comprehensive immigration bill to the border security measure as a "nutso scheme."
Lawmakers have struggled to compromise on a handful of bills to deal with the nation's pressing problems, sometimes having to negotiate within their own ranks.
Congress is poised to send Obama legislation revamping the VA, with a Senate vote expected Thursday. Lawmakers also are working on a path forward for highway and transit projects. The sweeping, $16.3 billion VA bill would overhaul the scandal-plagued department after reports of patients dying while awaiting treatment and long delays in scheduling appointments.
The legislative effort came against the backdrop of a partisan House vote to sue Obama for unilateral changes in his signature health care law. Republicans accused him of shredding the Constitution, while Democrats described the vote as a veiled attempt at impeachment.
The near party-line vote on Wednesday was 225-201.
Determined to help Israel amid weeks of deadly fighting in Gaza with Hamas, the House and Senate also were expected to approve $225 million for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system that intercepts short-range rockets and mortars.
Support for Israel is strongly bipartisan in Congress. Immigration, on the other hand, causes sharp splits.
With a day left before the government plans to start reducing federal highway aid payments to states, the House insisted on its version of a bill to keep the money flowing.
The House bill allocates $10.8 bill to keep highway and transit programs going through the end of May 2015.