House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) does not think it is wise for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to keep Congress away from Washington, D.C. as the country is in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic.

During an interview with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham, explained there were other urgent matters that Congress needed to consider.

“I think the American people deserve leaders who work day in and day out for them, who can upstand the test, could be able to do it in a safe, smart, steadfast manner,” he said. “I sent the Speaker a letter last week on how to open Congress up. States don’t open the entire state at once. So, why don’t we bring back committees like the Armed Service, the National Defense Authorization Bill? You could put it in the auditorium, so you have social distancing, or you bring in transportation because they had the word, bill, or you could bring in appropriations. We have 12 bills to actually fund Congress.”

“The subcommittees could be in there, have the rooms to themselves, get the work done, and then bring the rest of Congress back to vote on those,” McCarthy continued. “I don’t understand. The Democrats have no plan whether to hold communist China accountable or to reconvene Congress itself.”

Ingraham noted what seemed to be a lack of attention from the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives on issues related to ordinary working people, to which McCarthy agreed.

“I’m not feeling it either,” McCarthy said. “We’re essential. Think of every night the number of truck drivers that are driving to refill the shelves in the grocery store that the clerks are working tomorrow. Are the farmers are out in the fields to make sure we have safe food? Or do the medical workers, they’re day in and day out.”

“And Congress is elected to be leaders,” he continued. “The American public expects us to uphold the test when they come to us. And right now, we’re not doing that. Unfortunately, the Speaker is holding it up. Yesterday, they said they’d come in. Today, they denied the ability to do it. I have sent them a letter of how we can do it and how we can make it happen.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor