In an overnight reversal, House leaders have decided not to call members back to Washington for a full session next week, prolonging members' unprecedented absence from Capitol Hill due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"After further discussion with the House physician last night .... we will not come back next week, but we hope to come back very soon," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday.

House Democratic leaders arrived at their decision to keep members in their home districts after acknowledging that the new infection rates of Covid-19 in Washington, DC, and surrounding counties are still rising.

"The House physician's view was that there was a risk to members," Mr Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Mr Hoyer announced on a Democratic caucus call that the chamber would be called back for business on the week beginning 4 May, and that "votes are possible" on a sweeping new legislative package to help combat the coronavirus crisis.

Congress has passed four bills to aid in the pandemic relief effort worth more than $2.7trn in the last seven weeks. That expenditure figure represents roughly 13 per cent of US GDP.

Mr Hoyer told members on the call on Monday that he wants a Democratic version of the next bill drafted by Tuesday of next week and ready to hit the House floor by Thursday or Friday at the latest.

The Senate will be in session next week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said in a statement on Monday.

A spokesman for Mr McConnell confirmed the upper chamber will be in Washington for a full work week despite the House further postponing its resumption of regular business.

Donald Trump took a pot shot at Democrats on Tuesday saying that Democrats are "enjoying their vacation" and "don't want to come back" to Washington.

When pressed if he really believes Democrats are enjoying the coronavirus crisis, Mr Trump pointed to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden where she showed the British host her trove of artisan ice cream.

She is "eating ice cream," Mr Trump said.

Both chambers have been slow to adopt any sort of remote work system, leaving committee chairs powerless to call oversight hearings as the Trump administration doles out the trillions of dollars Congress has authorised since early March.

Members on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence have not been able to attend classified briefings since they are typically held at a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) at the Capitol, and no contingencies are in place for remote briefings.

And perhaps most importantly, being stuck in their home districts has sidelined rank and file members from both parties from direct negotiations on the coronavirus response legislation, though it has afforded them the opportunity to gather on-the-ground information from their constituents about what is and is not working.

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"I think most members are working harder than they would work if they were at the Capitol," Mr Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday, saying lawmakers are talking with small business owners, governors, local political officials and constituents.