How do you quiet down a group of chatty senators who are on the verge of heading home for a monthlong recess?

"Have senators sit down and shut up!" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said to Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who was presiding over the Senate at the time.

Reid's suggestion came ahead of a cloture vote on a transportation and housing funding bill, which eventually failed. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, prepared to make her case for why senators should move forward with the $54 billion spending bill, but a group of senators were talking loudly.

Reid, who is known to use salty language from time to time, wanted to quiet them down.

"It's unfair. Senator Collins has something to say. It's just not polite," Reid said.

Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner joked Thursday about lawmakers' demeanor ahead of the looming monthlong recess.

"I'm sure the August recess will have our members in a better mood when they come back," Boehner said in a news conference.