WASHINGTON – The Senate will delay the start of its August recess.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement Tuesday that the recess will not begin until the third week of August, blaming Democrats for the delay.

“Once the Senate completes its work on health care reform, we will turn to other important issues including the national Defense Authorization Act and the backlog of critical nominations that have been mindlessly stalled by Democrats,” the statement read.

The move had been rumored for a while; a group of Senate Republicans held a press conference earlier Tuesday to call for the delay.