McConnell Cancels Senate's August Recess, Citing Nominee Backlog

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell canceled the chamber’s four-week August recess, bowing to calls from GOP lawmakers to stay in Washington to finish work on nominations and undercutting election campaigning by Democrats who have more than a half dozen incumbents at risk in November.

“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 of Kentucky said in a statement on Tuesday. “Senators should expect to remain in session in August to pass legislation, including appropriations bills, and to make additional progress on the president’s nominees.”

The cancellation threatens to take days of time away from the campaign trail for senators on the ballot this fall, and the change will have a lopsided effect on Democrats. There are 26 Democratic-held seats on the ballot this fall, compared to just nine for Republicans. And while seven incumbent Democrats are seen as competitive by analysts including the non-partisan Cook Political Report, just one Republican is. That’s Senator Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican.

“We’ll be here. It will be an enjoyable August,” said Colorado Republican Senator Cory Gardner, who is head of the Republican Senate campaign arm.

McConnell’s move to alter the four-week recess that was scheduled to begin on Aug. 6 may also be a tactic to win a deal with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York on a plan to move a large bloc of pending nominees through in exchange for more time away from Washington.

Last year, McConnell initially announced he would delay the Senate’s five-week summer recess by two weeks as lawmakers were debating how to revise health-care legislation he proposed to replace Obamacare. Later, after the health-care measure was defeated on the Senate floor, that was revised so that the recess was reduced by just one week.