"With the House not scheduled to return to work until Dec. 31 -- a late started designed ..."

This date should be Jan 31.

Has that schedule change been verified? The House website hasn't posted the 2006 schedule, which I doubt is just due to a busy webmaster, and I haven't heard anything about it in the mainstream press. Hastert's maneuver strikes me as a major abuse of power, and yet I've heard virtually no one talking about it. I'm not sure if this is an appropriate forum for questions, but if Tim or anyone has some follow-up or has sourced this, I'd appreciate it. I attempted to contact one of Delay's potential 2006 opponent's campaigns, but haven't heard back.

A previous letter writer says the late start for the House is January 31. Can this be possible, or even legal? Just for little old Tom DELAY?

"The 20th Amendment to the Constitution, proclaimed as ratified February 6, 1933, established noon on the 3rd day of January as the meeting date, unless the Congress by law appoints a different day" (qtd from the official site of the U.S. House). It obviously can't be December 31, or they wouldn't get New Year's day off, but postponing the opening of the spring session by nearly a month, even if they are allowed to make a new law to change it, is outrageous.

Moreover, extending the Patriot Act by five weeks, when it was scheduled to expire at December 31, would push the new expiration date to Feb. 3, 2006, five weeks from Dec. 31. If Jan. 31 is correct for the opening day, that gives the House THREE whole days to agree to whatever the Senate has done with the Patriot Act by then.

I hope the Senate is coming back in a more timely fashion, and I hope the Senate establishes the nation's priorities a little more sanely than the obviously crooked House: hearings on Bush breaking the law first, please, and then hearings on the Alito nomination, if they still apply. Nothing less will do.

The Patriot Act is lousy legislation badly written and should not be extended at all

While the US Congress Website doesn't state the January 31 2006 start date, I did a quick search & found a few reps who have the date on their respective Websites. Alderholt (Alabama 4th), Kind (Wisconsin 3rd), and Snyder (Arkansas 2nd) each specifically state on their sites that Congress reconvenes January 31, 2006.

My rep doesn't have the info on his site & I plan to write to him about it and the inappropriate delay for DeLay.