Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced Tuesday he is canceling the annual August recess to deal with a legislative backlog he blamed on the chamber’s Democratic minority.
“Due to the historic obstruction by Senate Democrats of the president’s nominees, and the goal of passing appropriations bills prior to the end of the fiscal year, the August recess has been canceled,” McConnell said in a statement that made official a decision that had been anticipated for weeks.
The House and Senate are working to pass as many of the annual twelve spending bills as possible ahead of the Sept. 30 fiscal-year deadline, and McConnell said those bills will now be a priority in August. McConnell has also made it a top priority to confirm as many of President Trump’s lifetime judicial appointments as possible this year.
McConnell said senators will still get the first week of the month off, but return to Washington, D.C., for…
