If you can’t bring yourself to read all the boring reporting, think this Punchbowl News summary of what’s happening with the shutdown will catch you up just fine. The House is still in recess and here’s why:
House GOP lawmakers passed a “clean” CR that would keep federal agencies open until Nov. 21. Senate Democrats have repeatedly blocked that measure, which led to this shutdown. Democrats are demanding a vote on their own proposal to permanently extend expiring Obamacare premium credits, a rollback in massive Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the end of unilateral spending rescissions.
Yet the House’s absence makes it easier for the shutdown to continue. Part of what ends shutdowns is anxiety building among the rank-and-file. Members are home, so there’s limited pressure on House GOP leaders to do anything. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and dozens of Democrats have been in D.C. throughout the shutdown.
More importantly, Johnson has emerged as the “face” of the shutdown for House Republicans. He’s doing daily press conferences and more media interviews, putting himself in the center of the fracas. A C-SPAN caller begging Johnson to bring the House back last week went viral. So did Johnson’s hallway confrontation with Arizona Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly over Johnson’s refusal to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, a move that has infuriated Democrats.
Grivalja would be the 218th signature for a discharge petition mandating a floor vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. House GOP leaders think Trump will be furious if the discharge petition gets that vote, mainly because it will be viewed as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) besting the president. The petition will fail in the Senate and Trump will never sign it. But the symbolism is important.
Johnson sent the House home early in July because of an internal House GOP rebellion over the Epstein case, and months later, it remains a problem for Johnson and the White House.
Here’s something I hadn’t heard before:
The reality is that since the OBBB passed on July 3, the House has been checked out. A virtual non-entity for more than three months. And this is the off-year, when Congress is supposed to be busy.
Since July 3, the House has only been in session for 20 days (out of more than 100 calendar days.) Even accounting for the normal August break — which began early because of the Epstein mess – the House has been AWOL.
There have been just over 90 floor votes during this period. A lot of these were amendment votes or votes on non-controversial suspension bills. Several were partisan FY2026 spending bills that have no chance of passage. All in all, very little of substance has been taken up. But as Johnson will remind you, the House did pass a CR.
[…]
If you see it, don’t say it. House Republicans have done virtually no oversight on the Trump administration, rolling over on a number of issues that their predecessors would have screamed loudly about. It’s true that House Democrats did little or nothing to rein in President Joe Biden when they controlled the House. But Trump has gone far beyond Biden in using executive authority. “Inside the White House, top advisers joke that they are ruling Congress with an ‘iron fist,’” the Wall Street Journal reported.
For an institution that has complained for years about the need to claw back power from the executive branch, it’s a sad state of affairs. And it shows no sign of ending soon.
I don’t know what House Democrats were supposed to do to “rein in” Biden but whatever. Both sides dontcha know. But the rest is quite right.
They aren’t working because they have no job. Trump calls the shots and they march along like the tiny little lemmings they are. It’s not a sad state of affairs. It’s a crisis.