WILMINGTON, Del. — President Biden is expected to return to the White House from Delaware on Monday, as a furious debate over his $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package interrupted plans for his first summer vacation in office.
Mr. Biden had planned to spend the next two weeks away from Washington, splitting time between his home in Wilmington and his vacation house in Rehoboth Beach.
The White House didn’t offer an explanation for Mr. Biden’s expected return to D.C. But it’s likely he is eager to monitor the battle over his infrastructure agenda, which the president has called “a historic investment” in roads, bridges, broadband internet access, and more.
Democrat senators are confident the bill will pass, but it’s a question of how long that will take, with the timing of the final vote up in the air.
Many Republicans, meanwhile, are intent to drag out the vote on the president’s top priorities. If approved, the bill would go to the House, where it faces an uncertain future.
The bickering has cost the president at least some vacation time. It is unclear how much time he’ll spend at the White House until he returns to Delaware again, or travels to Camp David to resume his disrupted vacation.
He did spend Saturday playing golf and attending Mass in Delaware, but had no public activities. Mr. Biden also held a virtual meeting with members of the U.S. Olympic team from his home Saturday night.
“You handled yourself with such grace and such decency,” the president told the athletes.
Presidents traditionally take a two-week break from Washington in August while Congress is on recess. But White House aides said Mr. Biden won’t have the luxury of a true vacation, regardless of where he spends it.
“Every president is always working no matter where they are,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday.
In the era of smartphones and other technology, a president can never truly escape their workload. Even on vacation, presidents are still receiving briefings on national security, the economy, and other issues.
Mr. Biden and his team will be monitoring the progress of the infrastructure bill, as well as a $3.5 trillion companion package that Senate Democrats also plan to take up. The White House will also likely continue discussions about combatting surging COVID-19 cases, the Aug. 31 deadline to pull out of Afghanistan, and whether to extend unemployment benefits that will expire in September for millions of Americans.
Former President Obama was on summer vacation in Martha’s Vineyard in 2014 when Islamic State militants beheaded an American journalist in Syria. Mr. Obama held a news conference on the island playground, but was criticized for golfing after the briefing.
In 2017, former President Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when he ordered an airstrike on Syria.
Former President George W. Bush was vacationing at his Texas ranch when Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans in August 2005. He took heavy criticism for appearing slow to respond in person.
When Mr. Biden wants a break, his preferred choice for relaxation is to return to his homes in Delaware.
Mr. Trump spent his vacation time at his two commercial properties that also doubled as home, either at his Mar-a-Lago resort or the Trump National golf course he owns in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, golfed on Martha’s Vineyard, where his family rented vacation homes. In his post-presidency, Mr. Obama purchased a nearly $12 million waterfront estate on the island, where he held a 60th birthday bash on Saturday night that was attended by friends and celebrities such as Beyonce, George Clooney and Tom Hanks.
The only president in recent memory who spent as much time at his home as Mr. Biden was Mr. Bush, who traveled frequently to his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Veteran White House reporter Mark Knoller compiled a list of presidential vacation time for NPR. So far, Mr. Biden has spent 14 weekends in Wilmington and just six at the White House, according to Mr. Knoller. The remaining weekends have been spent at Camp David, except for one weekend in Europe for the Group of 7 Summit.
All told, Mr. Biden has spent 72 days away from the White House during the first six months of his presidency, according to Mr. Knoller’s statistics. That puts him behind Mr. Bush, who spent 79 days away from the White House during the same period in his first year in office.
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, spent 41 days away from the White House, and Mr. Obama was absent from Washington for 17 days during the same period of their presidencies, Mr. Knoller found.
