GOP leaders plan to keep Congress out of session even as pressure to end DHS shutdown grows | CNN Politics

Lawmakers have departed Washington for spring recess locked in a stalemate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. But even as their movements outside the halls of Congress face increased public scrutiny, Republican leaders are showing no signs they’ll force their members to come back early to hash out a deal. Photos of South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham dining in Florida at Disney World over the weekend surfaced in tabloid TMZ, while Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia was spotted at a casino in Las Vegas. The images drew swift backlash as they rapidly spread across social media Monday. The senator, a key Trump ally, said he had met with Trump official Steve Witkoff in South Florida for discussions on normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel, before meeting friends in Orlando after. And the congressman was visiting family, his office noted, and will return to Washington, DC, as soon as Republicans call members back into session. But the optics of the lawmakers traveling as the DHS remains shut down is ratcheting up pressure on the Republican-led Congress to shorten their previously scheduled Easter and Passover break. And it is exposing how GOP leadership