The Senate recessed last week for the month of August without mustering the 60 votes needed to begin debate on a $79 billion tax bill. The legislation would have revived a trio of business tax provisions (increasing the small business expensing cap to $1.29 million; restoring full and immediate expensing for investments in capital equipment; and restoring interest deductibility on working capital loans), that had received overwhelming bipartisan support in the House, passing 357-70 in January.

With the Senate majority at stake in the November election, the bill fell victim to election-year politics. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Republicans of being against working families by not supporting the bills’ expansion of the Child Tax Credit and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Republicans countered that Schumer has sat on the legislation since February and only brought the bill to the floor at the eleventh hour before the recess period.

Both the House and the Senate will return to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 9 with hopes of averting a government shutdown before the federal fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.