Rep. Rob Wittman calls on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to cancel August recess

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) is calling upon House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-C.A.) to cancel the congressional chamber's upcoming August recess, arguing that lawmakers should not leave town before completing the American people's business.

"With less than two weeks in session before Congress takes our taxpayer funded recess, the full House has yet to even complete one of the 12 Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations bills that fund the government. As I did in an earlier letter on June 9, I again encourage you to cancel the August district work period and keep members in Washington, D.C., as long as it takes to complete the work of the people," Wittman wrote in his latest letter to Pelosi.

"With so much work left to be done, it boggles the mind as to why anyone would feel justified in taking a month off," he wrote.

Wittman's new letter comes after he sent a similar letter to Pelosi last month.

"I appreciate that district work periods allow members to visit with constituents back in their respective communities, but it has become a habit for Congress to abandon a long 'to do' list in the rush to get out of town," he noted in the June letter. "But Congress has not done its job. Our constituents expect us to stay and complete the work of the American people. The American people expect Congress to work diligently to pass critical national priorities and fund the government through regular order."

Congressman Wittman has served as the representative for Virginia's 1st Congressional District since 2007.

The lawmaker has previously raised these concerns in past years, including when his own party held the House majority. He has also pushed pieces of legislation to tackle these issues.

"We need to know where our money is going and work through our funding packages in a responsible, thoughtful, deliberate way through regular order – not rushed through at the last minute," Wittman said in a statement. "Returning to regular order — moving spending bills through the committee process and the floor where we read, debate, and vote on them — will go a long way towards bringing transparency back to the budget and appropriations process."