Washington, D.C. — When asked if she would be joining President Trump for his visit to her state on Friday, Maine Senator Susan Collins said, “No, I will be in Washington working on Friday.”
Here’s the problem with Collins’s shameless dodge: under Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the United States Senate rarely, if ever, works on Fridays. In fact, this year, out of a possible 22 Fridays, the Senate has been in session just one Friday — that’s a paltry 4.5 percent.
What’s more striking is that having Fridays off is not an exception but the standard practice under McConnell. In 2019, Senator Collins and her colleagues were in Washington working just five Fridays out of a possible 52 -- just 10% of the time.
“Susan Collins picked an interesting week to start working on Fridays in Washington. Under Mitch McConnell, the Senate routinely takes long weekends,” said Joshua Karp of Fix Our Senate. “The question for Collins is what exactly she’ll be working on this Friday? There will be no committee meetings, and McConnell says action on urgent legislation related to the pandemic is at least a month away. Collins needs a better answer if she’s going to skip a trip by the President to her own state.”