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Rep. Gallagher Urges Colleagues to Cancel August Recess

June 27, 2017

Washington, D.C. - Rep. Mike Gallagher recently delivered a speech on the House floor urging his colleagues to cancel Congress' August break in legislative activity until they finish their work on behalf of the American people.

In his speech Rep. Gallagher asked his colleagues, "In what other job would you grant yourself a month off if you failed to get your work done? I know we need to go back home to meet with our constituents. But more than anything else I believe our constituents sent us here to do our job – to work together, to fix problems rather than punting them down the road to next generation."

Read the transcript of Rep. Gallagher's speech below:

"Mr. Speaker, I stood before you in this very spot not long ago, urging this Congress to do the work the American people sent us here to do. And yet, two months later not much has changed. Distrust in government is still at an all-time high and it's not hard to see why. Our federal debt continues to approach 20 trillion dollars. Our tax code remains broken and burdensome. Threats continue to rise abroad and here at home and, by the way, our veterans still are not getting the care that they deserve.

This is unacceptable. And despite this, despite the fact that Congress by any metric we devise is not doing its basic job that the American people sent us here to do, we will in just seven weeks adjourn on a month-long vacation without reforming the tax code or getting our appropriations done. And just 30 days after returning from the August recess, if we don't make some hard choices the government may shut down, cutting our constituents from access to programs they depend on for their livelihoods.

So, my message is simple: let's work through the August recess. Because in what other job would you grant yourself a month off if you failed to get your work done? I know we need to go back home to meet with our constituents. But more than anything else I believe our constituents sent us here to do our job – to work together, to fix problems rather than punting them down the road to next generation.

So please, let's stay here, let's work with a sense of urgency and purpose to better this country because that's what we owe the American people."

Click here for the video of Rep. Gallagher's speech.