House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday that it is “unlikely” that the House will be in Washington at all during the August recess and that he doesn’t expect the Senate to pass a healthcare bill on Tuesday.
“Is there any scenario? Yes, there is, but I don’t think it will happen, and that is that the Senate passes a healthcare bill in the next 72 hours. They’ve had seven months to do it, they’ve been twisting in the wind,” Hoyer told reporters with a laugh at his weekly pen and pad.
“I don’t expect that to happen, even if they approve the motion to proceed, which I hope they don’t and there’s reason to believe, based upon what a number of senators have said, that they’re not, but who knows what’s going to happen on their side of the aisle in terms of getting to 50 votes. It’s unlikely. It’s possible if they passed the health bill,” Hoyer said.
“There’s no reason for us to be here,” Hoyer added. “I think it’s unlikely. Not impossible.”
At the moment House Republican leadership is not planning on having members stick around for the opening weeks of the August recess, but warned that they could be called back later on if the Senate moves forward with a healthcare bill. The remarks from Hoyer came only hours before an expected Senate vote on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
“That would not be my preferred scenario, I’ll tell you that,” Hoyer said with a chuckle about returning from recess . “And the good news — I don’t think it’s the preferred scenario of any other House member either.”
The House Freedom Caucus has been the most vocal opponent of members returning to their districts during the recess and has pointed to the inaction in Washington as the main reason.
The Senate is currently slated to remain in Washington for the first two weeks of the initially planned recess.
