GOP: “Washington hasn’t ever been known for its round-the-clock nightlife. A group of Republican senators is looking to change that.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, 11 Senate Republicans urged their leader to keep the Senate open for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, ‘to advance the president’s agenda.’…
Having the chamber open 24/7, the senators said, would provide the Senate with more time to rewrite the tax code, dismantle the Affordable Care Act and confirm more of President Donald Trump’s judicial and executive-branch nominees.
The letter comes as Republicans hit the nine-month mark in control of the House, Senate and White House, but with little legislation to show for it. Their hopes for a health bill in the spring and a major tax-code overhaul by August proved far too optimistic. With the pressure of the 2018 midterm elections looming, some GOP senators are taking aim at their own days off…
Mr. McConnell, of Kentucky, has already signaled to Senate Republicans that they should plan to be in the Senate for more weekends and Fridays, a day most lawmakers typically spend in their home states, as they gear up for a tax-code overhaul, aides said. At the White House this week, Mr. McConnell said he hoped to confirm more of Mr. Trump’s nominees.”
-Kristina Peterson, Natalie Andrews, and Richard Rubin, “Working Hard or Hardly Working? Some Senators Press for Longer Hours,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 20, 2017 12:41pm