Cantor asks new members for input on House schedule

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) is soliciting input from newly elected members on the House schedule for 2013. 

In a letter to new members sent Thursday evening, Cantor offered congratulations on their election and said voters delivered a message to Washington that they want the two parties “to find common ground on the nation’s most pressing issues.” 

The Virginia Republican, who was re-nominated to his leadership post unanimously on Thursday, highlighted free trade agreements, job legislation, Iran sanctions and a defense authorization bill as examples of bipartisanship in the last two years.

When he took office in 2011, Cantor changed the House calendar to make recesses and vote schedules more predictable, in an effort to leave enough time both for district work periods and for uninterrupted committee hearings in Washington. As part of that change, the House generally kept to a practice of scheduling two weeks of in-session time in Washington followed by a weeklong recess. 

“I strove to deliver a predictable schedule that accommodated time spent with constituents at home and substantive committee work here in Washington,” Cantor wrote. “I am finalizing the 2013 calendar and welcome any input you may have now, or in the future.”

A Cantor aide said it was likely the House would stick to its two-weeks-on, one-week-off schedule, though the details were still being worked out.

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