Last days in the bunker

With less than a week until Inauguration Day, the Fourth (and extremely lame-duck) Session of the 48th Congress is hunkered down in the Capitol, sitting day and night in order to pass various pieces of last-minute legislation and hammer out Patria's 2011 budget before adjournment, which is expected some time on June 29. Indeed, it is said that the only time any significant work gets done in Patria's Congress is in the ten weeks between election and inauguration.

From the Capitol, lawmakers can view the platform and reviewing stands being constructed at the main entrance (on Schaefer St. and the eastern end of Castoropolis Common, if you have your map of Patria's capital handy) for the inaugural ceremonies and parade. For many members of Congress, particularly the National Union, which lost half its seats in the April 17 election, they might feel like the death row prisoner looking out from the cell window and watching the gallows being built.