McCarthy Lays Out Plan to Reopen House — ‘The House Needs to Work’

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Monday’s “Fox & Friends” laid out a plan for the House to return back to work after taking a recess due to the coronavirus pandemic.

McCarthy said that the House safely getting back to doing the work of the American people, which the Senate is doing on Monday, would be “critical” because it would keep the “essential work of Congress going instead of staying home.”

“I think the House needs to work,” McCarthy advised. “I’m on a bipartisan panel. Republicans laid out today a plan, a four-phase plan how Congress can work.”

He continued, “Republicans have a plan to get us back to work, and the first phase is let’s get our committees back. We don’t have to have all of the committees at once, but let’s work on the bills that are most needed: that’s about funding, that’s about national defense, that’s about our water resources. They can take up the big room so they have the social distancing. These bills are more not partisan but bipartisan, bicameral so they are not wasting anybody’s time. They are needed, essential bills. Once we pass those, you can bring all of Congress back to vote and we change our voting structure — that it’s a longer vote not everybody is on the floor at once, we can put plexiglass up, much like grocery stores in the areas that are congested. These are the ways that we can make Congress actually work because I believe we are essential instead of staying home.”

McCarthy added that Congress should have testing readily available inside committee rooms and be prepared for a flare-up and properly quarantine the area to allow members to keep working.

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