Trump to lawmakers: get health care reform done before vacation

President Donald Trump prodded US lawmakers Monday to pass an unpopular health care reform bill before Congress goes on its summer recess next month.

Trump chided lawmakers as the Senate reconvened after a week off for the July 4 independence holiday and with the House of Representatives scheduled back in session on Tuesday. Both chambers are scheduled to be in recess for the entire month of August.

“I cannot imagine that Congress would dare to leave Washington without a beautiful new HealthCare bill fully approved and ready to go!” Trump wrote in an early morning tweet burst.

The tweets also included criticism of fired FBI director James Comey for allegedly leaking classified information in personal memos and a defense of Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka’s sitting in for him at a meeting at the G20 summit last week in Germany.

Trump has made repealing and replacing the health care law known as Obamacare a centerpiece of his agenda.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell had sought to bring up a vote on a Senate plan to do so, before the July 4 break. But late last month dissent in his own party forced him to delay the vote. Polls also show the Senate plan to be very unpopular among the American public.

McConnell had drafted the plan in secret with a coterie of aides, leaving out a number of key senators who later expressed concern that the bill could leave millions uninsured.