Column: Back to work in the other Washington

Each year, Congress breaks from session for what is referred to as “August Recess.”

This month isn’t much of a “recess” at all, which typically implies time to play and relax. Instead, August Recess, more aptly called the August District Work Period, is an opportunity for Members of Congress to return home, work throughout the District, and meet with the constituents they represent.

The federal government has a large footprint in Central Washington – from the Hanford cleanup site in Tri-Cities to the vast public and federally owned lands we enjoy to our ever-vital federal hydropower dams – and...