Did Congress get anything done? Depends on whom you ask | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Despite making some legislative headway Wednesday, not all members of Congress are satisfied with its progress as the 2016 session comes to a close ahead of the November election.

In a last-minute attempt to pass legislation and keep the government running past the end of the fiscal year Friday, the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to allocate $1.1 billion in funding to address the Zika crisis, aid those affected by floods in Louisiana and give support to residents of Flint, Michigan, after they struggled with water contamination earlier this year.

The House has been in action 108 days this year, according to the Library of Congress. With Congress adjourned, members won’t be back in action until Nov. 14, leaving them a month to campaign for their re-elections.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is disappointed.

“Here we are at the end of our session, early, (and) not very accomplished,” Pelosi said at a news conference Thursday. “Actions that were taken (were) long overdue.”

The delay in these actions, including the Zika funding – which came months and thousands of domestic cases later – demonstrates a lack of responsibility and commitment to protecting communities across the country, Pelosi said.

“I am glad that Floridians can now turn all of their focus on stopping the spread of Zika, and no longer fear that this Republican Congress will leave them high and dry in the face of this crisis,” Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, held opposing views about Congress’ degree of success.

“This concludes a pretty darn productive period,” Ryan said in a news conference. “You don’t always get what you want in divided government.”

Reflecting on a fiercely divided and often tied-up congressional session, Republican and Democratic lawmakers’ opinions on their effectiveness and their goals for the body’s next session remain just that – divided.

One thing they agreed on was that things could have been more efficient, but there was finger pointing among lawmakers as they placed some blame on members of the other major party.

“Senate Democrats made a decision somewhere in this year to slow things down and prevent further activity,” Ryan said. “My hope is that after this election, they’ll drop their political shenanigans and we’ll get on to doing serious business.”

Wasserman Schultz said Republicans’ actions toward passing legislation to combat Zika were “deeply disappointing.”

“Instead of handcuffing our response to crises like this one, we should work in a bipartisan fashion to serve the public,” she said.

Ryan said there were positives out of the session – he claimed a victory in working to amend the tax code, as well as placing Flint funding within the scope of the Water Resources Development Act. Looking forward, he hopes more will be done to address water resources and overhauling criminal justice. He also wants to work on replacing the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature health care law, with a plan that he calls A Better Way, which he said centered on “more choices and lower costs.”

Implementing this plan is the party’s major goal for 2017, Ryan added.

“We want to go bold,” he said. “We are specific, and we’re showing people that we are here to tackle the big challenges in this country before they tackle us.”

Obamacare also is on Pelosi’s agenda, but her goals are to protect the law and keep seniors from “shopping around for health care.” Other hopes for the 2017 legislative session include passing voting-rights laws, increasing gun safety and establishing a wage increase for all citizens, she said.

Both officials remained positive about achieving their respective goals as well as retaining – and gaining – seats in the House after the election.

“This is a Congress of wasted and underutilized time,” Pelosi said. “It’s about time that we took our responsibilities seriously here, as they impact the lives of the American people.”