- The Washington Times - Monday, January 14, 2019

House conservatives on Monday demanded the chamber cancel its upcoming vacation scheduled for next week and remain in town until the government shutdown is solved.

The Freedom Caucus, a group of hard-right lawmakers, said they met and voted to make the demand.

“We must keep working to solve the border crisis and reach a compromise,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.

The shutdown is now in its fourth week with no signs of compromise in view.

Voters generally blame President Trump more than they blame congressional Democrat, but he has said he feels he’s winning the fight, saying his demand for a border wall is too important to relent on.

While hundreds of thousands of federal employees are on furlough and hundreds of thousands more are working without pay, Congress has not let the shutdown ruin its schedule of vacations at the end of December, nor the various weekend and short one-day breaks in January.


SEE ALSO: Trump slams Democrats for Puerto Rico junket: ‘Maybe they were celebrating the shutdown’


Both the House and Senate are slated to be off next week.

Some Senate Democrats had threatened to try to force the Senate to be in session this past weekend, but relented after the chamber passed a bill that will eventually guarantee all federal workers pay for the time they’ve missed.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.

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