Senate To Scrap July 4 Recess

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said Thursday that the Senate recess scheduled for the Fourth of July week would be scrapped, as the deadline to raise the nation’s debt limit looms.

“It is often said that with liberty comes responsibility,” Mr. Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said on the Senate floor. “We should take responsibility seriously. I’m confident we do. That’s why the Senate will reconvene on Tuesday, the day after the Fourth. We’ll do that because we have work to do.”

On Wednesday, President Obama scolded Congress for failing to hunker down and hammer out a deal before the government’s borrowing authority expires in early August, returning the criticism that Republicans have lobbed at him for several weeks.

After president’s news conference, in which he said that both chambers ought to “stay here and cancel things until we get it done,” nine Republican senators, most of them freshmen, called for the cancellation of the recess. The House has been out this week, but will return July 6.