The House is taking an extra long vacation to get ready for the elections

(Image credit: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

last updated 3 November 2015

The House wants to make sure it's plenty ready for next November's elections. So much so, that it's decided to start the annual August recess in the middle of July. While they're at it, the House will also take the entire month of October off.

The House 2016 calendar released Tuesday by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) shows that August recess next year will be a whopping seven weeks long, beginning July 15, and that the House will be out of session starting at the beginning of October through a week after Election Day — Nov. 14. That's going to put an even bigger dent in the number of weekdays worked — and, according to The Washington Post, Congress currently only works about 40 percent of weekdays.

While lawmakers are taking a hiatus from, well, making laws, The Hill reports that they will instead be spending "more time in their home districts to prepare for November's elections" and attending their respective party's conventions, both slated for the end of July.