“In order to provide more time to complete action on important legislative items and process nominees that have been stalled by a lack of cooperation from our friends across the aisle, the Senate will delay the start of the August recess until the third week of August,” McConnell said in a statement released as he met with the entire conference behind closed doors for lunch.
Congress is typically scheduled to be on break and back in their districts for the entire month of August. The Senate was originally set to leave Washington at the end of this month.
A small but vocal group of Senate Republicans had been calling on McConnell to cancel all or a portion of their recess. The conservative House Freedom Caucus had also called for the cancellation of recess. It’s unclear what this means for the House and if Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, will follow the Senate’s lead.
This comes as Senate Republicans have struggled to coalesce around a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. McConnell was forced to postpone a vote on their original health care bill before the July 4 recess. Leadership is aiming to release a revamped version before the end of the week with a possible vote next week at the earliest.
