The U.S. House kicks off a month long recess today, which some Virginia Republicans say they don’t deserve.
While the health care bill is now seemingly dead, there’s still a lot to do for lawmakers. When they come back to Washington this fall they need to craft a budget, raise the debt ceiling or risk defaulting, fund the government, and the president is still itching for tax reform. That’s why 5th District Republican Tom Garrett says Speaker Ryan should keep lawmakers in Washington this month.
“So what I don’t want to do is sit up here and spend tax dollars on a kabuki theater show where we act like we’re working and we’re not getting anything done. We should stay here and we should bring forth legislation to advance the items that we ran and won on.”
Fellow Republicans Dave Brat and Morgan Griffith echo Garrett’s call to cancel the recess, which he says is driven in part because a lot of the remaining items impact the Commonwealth.
“Oh gosh. A lot of this by virtue of our fortune of being close to the nation’s capital and being a hub for military and strategic investment, and our misfortune of being close to the Capitol and being a hub for military and strategic investment... yeah a lot of this impacts Virginia very directly. “
Many Democrats, like Virginia’s Gerry Connolly, are welcoming tapping the brakes on the GOP agenda.
“Given what the Republicans in the budget, not having the budget is probably a good thing. The idea that we want to give this majority more time to wreak more havoc on federal employees, on women's reproductive rights, a whole broad range of things we're concerned about, environmental protection, is a dubious proposition. So I'm not one calling for extending our session into the August recess. I want to limit the damage frankly.”
The Senate is still expected to be in for two more weeks.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
