Took them long enough! Geez!

Despite all the outcry over the fact that President Bush took a working vacation at the Western White House, we never heard much over the fact that the entire Congress was also on vacation.

And since Hurricane Katrina, we have heard plenty of news stories with headlines like "President cuts vacation short" or "President leaves vacation early."

My question is, what took the Senate so long to get back in session? The hurricane was on Monday? And the Senators have only just passed legislation tonight. The House won't even vote on it until tomorrow.

Congress rushed to provide a $10.5 billion down payment in relief aid for Gulf Coast victims of Hurricane Katrina on Thursday as President Bush ordered new action to minimize disruptions in the nation's energy supplies. The Senate approved the measure Thursday night, and the House will convene at noon on Friday to speed the measure to Bush's desk.
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A skeleton crew of Senate leaders was all that was required to speed the measure through by voice vote after Bush informed top Republicans and Democrats that reserves of relief funds could be exhausted by Congress' scheduled return from a five-week vacation on Tuesday.

Couldn't this "skeleton crew" have ended their vacations on Monday and passed a measure? I understand it might take time to write one up, but couldn't they have hurried a bit? After all, the hurricane hit very early Monday morning. I assume they knew it was coming . . . but then we are talking about the U.S. Senate here.