WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he was canceling most of the Senate’s August recess, an election-year move that could help lawmakers clear extra work while keeping vulnerable Democratic senators off the campaign trail.
McConnell, R-Ky., said he decided to shorten the usual summer getaway “due to the historic obstruction by Senate Democrats of the president’s nominees.”
He also said he wants to pass as many annual spending bills as possible before the Sept. 30 end of the federal fiscal year. Leaders hope that would diminish the chances for a budget standoff that could spark a politically damaging government shutdown.
Democrats nursing long-shot hopes of winning Senate control in the November elections have far more senators facing re-election than the Republicans do, so it could be in Republicans’ advantage to keep lawmakers at the Capitol. Ten of those Democrats are from states Donald Trump won in 2016. Republicans control the Senate 51-49.
Republicans also want to approve as many of Trump’s nominations and pass as many bills as possible.
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