Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) took to the Senate floor Tuesday calling on lawmakers to get back to work in Washington, D.C.
“We've seen health care providers working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We've seen the president and his staff at the White House working 24 hours a day and 7 days a week,” Lee said.
“We've seen the Centers for Disease Control and members of the public health community who have continued to work tirelessly. Farmers and truck drivers and grocery store employees and pharmacists working to make sure that we continue to have access to the things we need in order to live. We've seen members of the news media working overtime, even if, as is the case for many of them, they do so only to blame all of this – rather unfairly, in my opinion – on the President of the United States. We see parents working both their jobs, both of them, and from home, and simultaneously homeschooling their children. And yet, Congress is in recess.”
Lee continued, “We've got exactly two choices, Mr. President. We can choose to legislate, in which case we have to convene. Or we can stay in recess and not legislate. Those really are the only two options.”
“Under our constitutional system, under any definition of the term, senators are essential employees. We're being paid. We have a crisis to continue to work through. Our services are necessary. And in order to perform those services, we have to perform them here in Washington.”