GOP Sen. James Lankford (Okla.) is among the chorus of Republican senators arguing for the upper chamber to delay its planned recess starting at the end of this week if lawmakers cannot pass the party’s top priorities, including voter ID legislation.
While appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Lankford outlined the Senate Republican Conference’s three priorities this upcoming week: passing a continuing resolution to fund the government once the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, confirming more than 70 of President Trump’s judicial nominees and jamming through a $95 billion reconciliation package that includes election-related reforms in the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act.
“It’s a lot this week,” he told Fox News’s Shannon Bream. “If we don’t get it done this week, we’ll keep going until we do get it done.”
Trump has banged the drum for the SAVE America Act for months, recently clashing with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) as the latter has consistently said the Republican Party does not have the votes to bypass the filibuster to pass the legislation.
Multiple GOP senators said last week Thune should cancel the August recess, set to begin at the end of the workday on Friday and extend through Sept. 14.
Lankford noted the importance of the recess for his colleagues who are up for reelection, but he also said legislative business comes first.
“There’s not a plan to leave when it’s unfinished,” the Oklahoma Republican later added. “All those three things, they’ll happen this week, or we’ll keep going to be able to get them done. So, the focus is to be able to get them done.”
But Lankford acknowledged the reality of timing regarding the reconciliation measure. While the framework — which includes funding for the Pentagon amid the Iran war and assistance for farmers — has passed a key procedural hurdle in the House, that is just one of multiple steps in a process Lankford said “takes weeks” in Congress.
“You’ve got to get the first step done. Once the first step is done, then it takes several weeks to write it and then to be able to actually take the second step,” he remarked.
When Bream asked Lankford whether he believes the Senate will be gone for most of August as scheduled, he replied, “We’ll see.”
Lankford continued, “If we can get all of our work done at this point, then yes.”
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