House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is leaving her work behind at Capitol Hill and sending Congress on a monthlong recess. But according to Fox News, at least one Democrat thinks the move is “absurd.”
Fox News reports that California Rep. Ro Khanna wants the House to remain in session to negotiate a new coronavirus relief deal.
Negotiations on that legislation hit a stalemate late last week, prompting President Donald Trump to issue a series of executive orders designed to ease the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on Americans. But while Pelosi has blasted the orders as “unconstitutional,” she apparently thinks they’re good enough to justify a vacation until at least Labor Day.
Not a “smart move”
For his part, Rep. Khanna said Tuesday during what Fox described as “a Facebook town hall with his constituents” that there’s no reason for Congress to call their work quits — especially when millions of Americans are still suffering under the weight of the pandemic.
“I think Congress should be in session,” the Democrat congressman said, according to Fox. “I think it’s absurd for Congress to be going on a break during a pandemic and a national crisis.”
Pressed by a constituent, Khanna said he shares their “frustration” on the matter.
“I don’t think this is a smart move to recess and I agree with you,” he said, according to Fox.
The network further noted that the House hasn’t held a vote since July 31. They aren’t set to vote again until mid-September, Fox added.
“Didn’t you mess this one up?”
With this in mind, it’s not surprising to hear that Khanna isn’t the only one questioning Pelosi’s choices. Members of the media recently pressed the House speaker on her handling of the recent coronavirus relief negotiations, with Fox News’ Chris Wallace suggesting Sunday that she may have demanded too much.
“You’re known as a master negotiator, but didn’t you mess this one up?” Wallace asked Pelosi during the latest episode of Fox News Sunday, according to RealClearPolitics. “You knew that the president was threatening to take this executive action. I understand that you weren’t going to get everything you wanted and didn’t get everything you wanted, but should you have cut a deal?”
As RealClearPolitics reported, Pelosi shot back that Wallace “clearly” doesn’t “have an understanding of what is happening here, both in the weakness of the president’s executive order[s], which don’t give the money, enhanced benefit, but [also] with the complicated formula there [that] will take a while, if at all, to accomplish, to put money in the pockets of the American people.”
But how can Pelosi “put money in the pockets of the American people” if she and her colleagues in Congress aren’t even working? The question remains.
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