Congress Should Cancel Its Summer Recess

Jonathan Bernstein: “By now, it’s not news that Republicans, using the filibuster and other foot-dragging techniques, are doing their best to obstruct Senate action. To some extent this is about their opposition to Democratic legislation. But it’s more than that. They’re also stretching out how much time is spent on executive-branch nominations they don’t have the votes to defeat, for example, and even delaying those that they don’t object to.”

“To be sure, if Democrats had the votes, they’d fight back by streamlining Senate procedures to reduce the time it takes to act; for that matter, they’d also eliminate the filibuster, or at least reduce the opportunity to use it. Since they don’t have the votes, the only other option to fight back against obstruction is to add more floor time by canceling district work periods.”