WASHINGTON —Congress headed out of Washington on Friday, accomplishing relatively little in a short work period and missing deadlines on the budget and on helping Puerto Rico’s financial crisis.

It left few clues about how lawmakers, when they return next month, would address must-do items such as finding money to counter the Zika virus and a second, even scarier July 1 deadline for averting a fiscal disaster in cash-strapped Puerto Rico.

Democrats called upon House leaders to modify this spring’s three-weeks on, one-week off legislative schedule to keep working, as Puerto Rico hurtles toward a half-billion dollar default on Sunday.

“It’s very, very hard to get anything done if you are a drive-by Congress,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Hours later, however, Democrats joined Republicans in sprinting for the U.S. Capitol’s exits.

Over the past month, the Senate finally passed a major energy bill – the first in nearly a decade – and made progress on providing help for Flint, Michigan, which is grappling with a water contamination. But an effort to revive the moribund process of passing more than $1 trillion worth of annual spending bills ran aground, while talks on a $1 billion-plus measure to fight Zika are looking less promising.

An update on Capitol Hill’s unfinished agenda:

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PUERTO RICO

Having blown a May 1 deadline to help the economically distressed U.S. territory, lawmakers are now focusing on a July 1 deadline, when around $2 billion in principle and interest payments come due.

Puerto Rico expects multiple lawsuits to be filed shortly after Monday’s anticipated default. The government is expected to keep operating as usual, but economists warn that its access to capital markets will shut down and that eventually this will curtail public services if debt-restructuring isn’t approved.

A House bill would create a control board to help manage the island’s $70 billion debt and oversee debt restructuring. But the legislation has stalled in the Natural Resources Committee, as some conservatives and Democrats have objected.

Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has pushed the bill, saying the U.S. may eventually have to bail out the territory if Congress doesn’t act soon.

Senators have done even less to aid the territory.

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ZIKA VIRUS

President Obama’s $1.9 billion request for emergency funding to combat the Zika virus, known to cause grave birth defects, has elicited a lukewarm response Republicans controlling Congress. Many GOP lawmakers insist plenty of money is left over from the largely successful battle against Ebola.

The White House has already transferred almost $600 million in previously appropriated money to the Zika fight and would have little choice but to shift more if Congress remains gridlocked. for failing to act.

BUDGET

Both the House and Senate missed an April 15 deadline for producing a budget blueprint, which was a particular embarrassment for Ryan..

Meanwhile, the Senate has gone directly to the 12 annual spending bills in hopes of avoiding a yearend omnibus measure. But the very first bill, funding popular energy and water programs, hit a snag when Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., unveiled an amendment to undercut the nuclear deal with Iran and Democrats mounted a filibuster.

ENERGY/FLINT

Despite Senate approval of an energy policy bill, and approval by the Senate environment committee of a bill to help Flint, both face significant obstacles before reaching the president’s desk.


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