I appreciate the nuance and detail of your comment. I wanted to make sure I started with that so you don't think I'm just here to shit on your comment. I'm upset that we're here and slapping bandaids on this shit instead of actually thinking about solutions.
Congress can't pass a budget, but they can raise their own pay. They haven't passed any meaningful legislation in two years, but they can raise their own pay. They can't raise our minimum wage, but they can raise their own pay. Idk about you, but I've never gotten a raise for pisspoor performance at any job I've ever held. I'll be receiving a 3.5% raise in a couple weeks, and I've very much earned that, and it's thankfully a bit higher than the ~2.8% inflation over the past year so it's an actual raise. Not everybody has been so lucky. I'm completely on board with paying Congress well so that it's not gated off for only the wealthy elite to have access to, but let's not pretend that passing a raise for themselves right now is eradicating all semblance of corruption once and for all.
Why does Congress actually need to be in DC anymore anyway? Why not have an office in their district and securely remote vote? Having them in DC maintaining two residences is costing them more, keeping them physically distanced from their actual constituents, and making corporate lobbying significantly easier since they can easily talk face to face with dozens of reps/senators in a single afternoon. We could also raise the cap on the House since it's been undersized for proper representation for decades; no need to cap it to a number that can regularly gather in the chambers anymore. I'd rather they just stay in their district and lock their pay to their local inflation rate. If they want better raises, then they need to actually help their district.
Not OP, but with the aforementioned schedule, there are still weekends before and after that are still very valuable. The weekend before vacation could be used to catch up on chores and errands that would be nice to get done before the vacation, plus maybe pack. Then when you get back, your coming home to a clean place and not having to deal with running around straight away. Just be ready for only two days of work. Then another weekend to get rested up before a full week of work.
Two weekends bookending two half weeks of work bookending a week off from work is very nearly the same as a week of vacation and a week of staycation for only 5 vacation days. Sure you can't go out of town for an extended period with that plan, but I'm kinda ready to go home after 4-5 days away anyway.