--- title: How Syria Hijacked Congress | TIME description: TIME Washington correspondent Alex Altman explains what's been sidelined for Congress by the Syria talks canonical: https://time.com/video/ducuzgkb/ og:title: How Syria Hijacked Congress og:description: TIME Washington correspondent Alex Altman explains what's been sidelined for Congress by the Syria talks og:url: https://time.com/video/ducuzgkb/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ducuzgkb/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Syria Hijacked Congress twitter:description: TIME Washington correspondent Alex Altman explains what's been sidelined for Congress by the Syria talks twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ducuzgkb/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How Syria Hijacked Congress > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How Syria Hijacked Congress [Watch (HLS stream): How Syria Hijacked Congress](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ducuzgkb.m3u8) (1:09)  _Published 2013-09-13. TIME Washington correspondent Alex Altman explains what's been sidelined for Congress by the Syria talks_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:44 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [TIME Raw: Hollande and Cameron On Airstrikes in Syria](/video/de1A3kPr/) ### TIME Raw: Hollande and Cameron On Airstrikes in Syria [TIME Raw: Secretary Kerry's Remarks on Syria](/video/hy4e2KNk/) ### TIME Raw: Secretary Kerry's Remarks on Syria [U.S. Congress Returns to Face Syria Crisis](/video/ExfH5WdX/) ### U.S. Congress Returns to Face Syria Crisis --- ## Transcript When Congress came back from recess, it was an all Syria, all the time situation. And that was a problem, because Congress has a lot to do this fall, and not a lot of work days to accomplish it all. The first taks it's gotta do is to diffuse its annual, self- inflicted budget crisis. On September 30th, the government runs out of money, and the two sides can't agree on what the funding level should be. In mid October, the two parties have to figure out a way to raise the federal debt limit which is a problem because Republicans want to cut spending to offset that increase in money and Democrats don't. Beyond that, the two sides still have to do what should be the easy task of finishing the Bipartisan Farm Bill. Which this year has fallen prey to partisan bickering. Right now, the Senate is going into what could be several weeks of debate on the first Energy Legislation that has hit the floor since 2007. So, that is gonna suck up a good deal of time. Looming behind all of this is Comprehensive Immigration Reform which was supposed to be the big ticket item this year. It passed the senate over the summer, but has languished since then on the floor of the house, and there is no real timetable for taking it up amid all these other crises that it has to handle. Congress has not a lot of time to handle quite a lot of chores. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Syria Hijacked Congress","description":"TIME Washington correspondent Alex Altman explains what's been sidelined for Congress by the Syria talks","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ducuzgkb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-09-13T14:31:59.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ducuzgkb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/ducuzgkb/","duration":"PT1M9S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/ducuzgkb/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```