President Donald Trump and some GOP senators are calling upon Senate leadership to cancel plans for recess and to clear the backlog of 135 presidential appointments delayed by Democrat-forced gridlock.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has been outspoken about how Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) are considering conducting “pro forma sessions” with scant representation once a week to prevent Trump from making recess appointments.

In a post on X, Lee called for, “NO PRO FORMA SESSIONS, as their only purpose is to prevent Trump from making recess appointments,” adding that, “The Senate can’t have it both ways.”

Trump responded to Lee’s tweet, later posting on social media, “Very Important. Republicans must play to win. Clear the 135. So badly needed!”

Lee warned that delays in clearing the backlog of appointees would leave unelected bureaucrats in control of federal agencies and the senator accused Democrats of an unprecedented “campaign of delay and obstruction” to stall Trump’s nominees.

Sunday, Lee released a video noting that, even though we’re in late July, “Senate Democrats still want to pretend that Trump didn’t win the election and that Republicans don’t control the United States Senate.”

Lee warned that, at the Senate’s current pace, it would take until April 2026 to clear the backlog of 135 nominees now waiting for confirmation.

If the Senate were to take its traditional August recess, Lee says it will allow other nominees to stack up while allow the deep state to “continue to dominate” our agencies and departments.

According to Roll Call, Thune has already set up cloture vote on several nominations for this week, including Susan Monarez to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Sam Brown to be undersecretary of Veterans Affairs for Memorial Affairs.