Senator Chuck Grassley.
Iowa Republicans Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst are urging their GOP leader in the U.S. Senate to cancel an upcoming week-long recess in October.
Ernst says it’s time for congress to act on tax reform, immigration policy and a health care fix — for starters.
“We have so many issues right now, we can’t prioritize one over the other. All of these committees need to continue working on them simultaneously,” Ernst says. “We need to get these things done and why we didn’t stay here in August to continue working on these issues is beyond me.”
As is traditionally the case, the entire month of August was classified a “work period” outside of Washington for senators. The week of October 9th has been set aside as another work period for senators to be away from the nation’s capital.
“I don’t see how we, as congress, get our work done if we are not physically in Washington, D.C., going through the committee process, working on these issues and debating them on the floor,” Ernst says.
Earlier this summer President Trump suggested Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell should resign if he can’t get key GOP initiatives passed in the senate. Ernst has not called for McConnell’s resignation. However, a few weeks ago, Ernst suggested that if McConnell can’t pull GOP Senators together, he should assign someone else who will “inspire” Republican senators to pass tax reform and repeal the Affordable Care Act.