Senate Set to Return Monday as House Cancels Planned Work Week - Is It ‘Essential’ for Congress to Be In Session?

What’s the story?

• The Senate is scheduled to return to the Capitol on Monday, May 4th, while the House reversed a planned return on the same date and will instead postpone its return until a future date that is to-be-announced.

What is congressional leadership saying?

• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Monday announced that senators will be going back to work next week while practicing social distancing:

“We will modify routines in ways that are smart and safe, but we will honor our constitutional duty to the American people and conduct critical business in person. If it is essential for doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, truck drivers, grocery-store workers, and many other brave Americans to keep carefully manning their own duty stations, then it is essential for Senators to carefully man ours and support them.”

• After also announcing a return date of May 4th on Monday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced the cancellation of those plans after the House physician recommended against returning to session because of increasing cases in the District of Columbia. He told reporters that no return date has been scheduled and explained:

“The House physician’s view was that there was a risk to members. Under those circumstances, we have decided that we will not come back next week, but we will come back very soon to pass the CARES 2 piece of legislation. And at that point in time, we will be asking members to return to Washington… There are 435 schools of thought. Many of the members on the one hand want to get back… and there are members who, if there is not a major piece of legislation, then we ought to wait until we can do them altogether during a short period of time.”

• House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) released a statement calling for the House to return and get back to work as originally planned:

“The American people are looking to their leaders for steady guidance, yet Speaker Pelosi and her House majority would rather draft bills in secret than lead our country’s reopening by showing that we can safely get back to work in Congress. Just as we’re watching essential workers in so many segments of our economy perform our jobs every day, we need Congress to start working again on the growing list of areas that need our focus, like holding China accountable for their failures to disclose the truth about this virus, as well as the need to bring America’s supply chain back from China so we don’t rely on them for PPE and so many key ingredients for life-saving drugs. If President Trump and Senate Republicans can be in Washington working safely, there’s no reason for House Democrats to prevent us from doing the same.”

What is Congress working on?

• The Senate only has one vote scheduled for the week of May 4th so far, and that’s on the nomination of Robert Feitel to be Inspector General of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• However, the Senate will likely schedule additional votes for the remainder of the week and more details on the schedule are expected later in the week.
• Off the floor, lawmakers in the House & Senate will be working on proposals that could be included in a “phase 4” coronavirus relief bill.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / drnadig)