By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — The General Assembly is extending its hiatus.
Expected to return next week to finish up the business that was left undone when legislators recessed abruptly at the end of June, the House of Representatives is not going to come back until mid-October, and the Senate has made no decision about when it will return.

The House is now scheduled to reconvene Wednesday Oct. 14 and Thursday Oct. 15, according to spokesman Larry Berman, after first announcing they would return a week earlier, on Oct. 7 and 8, just before the Columbus Day weekend. Friday, Oct. 9, is one of the days Gov. Donald Carcieri has set for state government to be shut down as an emergency budgetary measure.
Senate spokesman Greg Pare said no date has been set for the Senate to resume its session, but he said the Senate will reconvene at some point this year.
It is considered highly unlikely that the Senate will come back next week as originally planned, but Pare would not confirm that.
Berman said there were some scheduling conflicts that prompted legislative leaders to push back the return from next week, and the unavailability of a “key legislator,” who Berman would not name, caused the extra week’s delay in returning to the Statehouse.
There are no official indications about what legislation will or won’t be taken up, but lawmakers have a full plate in front of them if they choose to tackle all of the still-open issues.
The most high-profile bills left in the lurch over the summer are conflicting House and Senate measures aimed at making indoor prostitution illegal as, among other things, a way to crack down on human trafficking.
The House passed a highly-touted version of the bill penned by Providence Rep. Joanne Giannini, but the Senate passed a different bill, viewed by some critics as a watered-down variant.
House leaders said earlier this summer that closing the legal loophole that makes prostitution non-prosecutable if it happens indoors would be a top priority during the resumed session.
It is not clear whether the assembly will attempt to override Gov. Donald Carcieri’s veto of a Senate bill that would have extended the required number of greyhound racing days at Twin River from the current 125 to 200, although the later return might make that possibility more questionable. The same bill would allow Twin River to open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (it is currently authorized to be open all night on weekends and the Sundays before holidays. The Carcieri administration maintains it can authorize the 24/7 opening by administrative order.
Woonsocket Sen. Marc Cote still hopes to win passage of a bill that would require all Rhode Island employers to use the federal E-Verify system to ensure that their new hires are in the country legally and eligible for employment.  A similar measure passed the House before the recess.
Berman said the House is likely to take up the issue of banning text messaging while driving, which is currently the subject of three different pieces of legislation before the chamber. The Senate has already passed it’s own version.
Also not clear is whether the legislature will take up Carcieri’s request for the power to withhold funds that have already been appropriated for a specific purpose by the legislature. Carcieri wants to use the authority initially to keep $32.5 million that would otherwise go to cities and towns as reimbursement for automobile excise taxes they no longer collect under state law.
Berman said since the governor wants to withhold the fourth quarter payment (for April, May and June) there would be time to take up the governor’s request when the lawmakers start their 2010 session in January, complete with committee hearings.