House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi today called on Republicans to cancel next week’s recess to continue work on transportation and student loan legislation.

“Instead of recessing yet again, the House should remain at work and pass critical legislation that will create jobs for the middle class that will actually be signed into law. Republicans must not run out the clock on the economy,” the California Democrat said in a letter to Speaker John Boehner (Ohio).

“As House Republicans prepare for yet another week of recess, hundreds of thousands of construction workers, businesses large and small, and others in the transportation industry, and millions of college students and their families are facing imminent hardship,” Pelosi said, adding that “statements from the House Republican leadership have raised alarm among middle-class families and American businesses concerning your commitment to acting on the middle-income tax cuts and the debt limit.”

Noting that next week’s recess would be the ninth of the year, Pelosi called on Boehner to “instead commit the House to working round the clock to address the highway and student loan laws, and to extend the middle-income tax cut without further delay.”

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel deflected blame to the Senate. “Rep. Pelosi’s letter should be addressed to her Democratic colleagues running the United States Senate, who are still blockading a host of jobs bills passed by the House with bipartisan support. We are happy to forward her note to them,” he said in reply.