Shortly after eight rank-and-file Republican senators urged postponing the recess to focus on the GOP agenda, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced the break would start two weeks later than originally scheduled, and blamed the change on Democrats. “In order to provide more time to complete action on important legislative items and process nominees that have been stalled by a lack of cooperation from our friends across the aisle, the Senate will delay the start of the August recess until the third week of August,” McConnell said in a statement.
McConnell was under pressure from Senators to delay the recess, originally scheduled to begin July 31, 2017, to give the Senate more time to work on the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act.