Saying the House had too much to do, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday urged Speaker John Boehner to keep the House in session as the chamber works to avoid a government shutdown and address other issues.
The House had recessed by Pelosi’s 1 p.m. press conference, and Pelosi said it was her understanding that the House would reconvene on the week of Sept. 23. She repeatedly noted that the House had only been back from its summer recess for four days and listed the issues that the chamber needed to address: the continuing resolution to fund the government, the farm bill and immigration reform among them.
“I’m calling upon Republican leadership to keep House in session,” Pelosi said.
As TPM has reported, the frenzy over what to do about Syria has complicated the already limited timetable to pass a bill to keep the government running.
Pelosi also sniped at the House GOP’s latest gambits to defund or delay the Affordable Care Act through brinksmanship on government spending or the debt ceiling..
“They are proposals to shut down government. They know that. They know their proposals are not going to pass the Senate or be signed by the president,” she said. “Just because you’re an anti-government ideologue who has landed in Congress doesn’t mean you can shut down the government.”
