The Majority Is…Vacationing? GOP Senate Breaks for Recess Without Doing Their Jobs

The Republican Majority Leaves for Two-Month Recess With No Action on Needed Zika Funding, Gun Safety Legislation, or Filling the Vacant Supreme Court Seat

GOP Senate Already Working Fewest Days in 60 Years

 

 

Despite claiming that they would get the Senate “Back to Work,” the Republican Senate Majority is once again proving that their main concern is to get back to vacation while leaving vital priorities unresolved.

 

Already working the fewest days in the past 60 years, Republicans are now taking a 7-week paid break—the longest recess in decades–without addressing:

• Critical funding to address the Zika virus that has already infected 4,222 Americans. Instead of following through on a bipartisan compromise, Senate Republicans shamefully tied the bill to poison pill amendments that would restrict access to birth control and strip  funding to combat the Ebola virus.
• Any type of commonsense gun safety legislation to, at the very least, keep firearms out of the hands of potential terrorists.
• Funding to tackle the opioid epidemic that continues to impact too many families across the country.
• Needed relief for Flint as the city continues to deal with the impact of its water crisis.
• The open Supreme Court seat that Republicans have allowed to sit vacant for more than 120 days so they can hold the seat for Donald Trump.

 

“Republicans have once again demonstrated they aren’t interested in getting the Senate back to work—they’re interested in continuing their partisan obstructionism so they can get back to their vacation,” said DSCC spokesperson Sam Lau. “It is nothing less than a dereliction of duty for Republicans to leave Washington while the Zika virus continues to worsen, suspected terrorists can still purchase firearms, and a Supreme Court seat remains vacant. Unfortunately, it’s also unsurprising for a Republican Senate Majority that has consistently put the special interests above working families—that is, when they decide they should show up to work in the first place. We need to put Democrats back in charge so the American people can once again have a U.S. Senate that tackles the important issues at hand and does its job.”