THE BUDGET BATTLE : Rare Sunday Session for Senate
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WASHINGTON — The Senate was in session on a Sunday for only the 17th time in history as it stayed on the job while Republican leaders and the White House struggled to reach the agreement on ending the government shutdown.
The Senate library said it was the first Sunday session since Oct. 27, 1990, when lawmakers were debating a clean-air bill and other end-of-the-year measures.
The Senate also met on two other Sundays in the autumn of 1990 to take up temporary spending, the federal debt limit and budget bills, the same types of measures Congress is now grappling with in trying to keep the government functioning.
The first Sunday session was on March 3, 1861, when the issue was slavery and the Constitution. Sugar has twice been the topic, in sessions in 1923 and 1960, while other issues have been campaign finance in 1973, energy and income taxes in 1978 and a gas tax in 1981. Most of the other Sundays were devoted, as this year, to budgetary matters.
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