Speaker Mike Johnson fired back Sunday at the narrative that the House was on “vacation” during the recently concluded 43-day government shutdown, quipping he has not had “a day off in two years.”
The lower chamber was not in session and did not conduct legislative business during the first 42 days of the shutdown, as well as the preceding week-and-a-half. Instead, members took part in a “district work period” when they had a chance to interact in-person with their constituents.
Johnson said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” that, contrary to what his critics claim, the fact that House members were not on Capitol Hill for weeks did not mean they were not still working.
“Just because we don’t have legislative voting days, it doesn’t mean Congress isn’t working. There’s this idea out there that Congress goes on vacation,” Johnson told host Shannon Bream. “Shannon, we haven’t — I haven’t — had a day off in two years. I mean, we work around the clock on these things. Our appropriators in particular, have been working very hard, and they’re ready to go.”
The speaker added that he is “very optimistic” the House and Senate can cooperate to pass and send nine appropriations bills to President Donald Trump’s desk by the Jan. 31, 2026 deadline in order to avert another shutdown.
“We are returning to regular order, the way this is supposed to work. You know, Congress hasn’t done this for many years — and I’m really proud of this achievement — having gotten three bills signed into law on Wednesday night. Three bills is a big achievement,” Johnson said, referring to three funding bills Trump signed at the close of the 43-day shutdown. “I know that seems like a low bar, but we’re getting Congress back to the way it’s supposed to work, so that we can be better stewards of the taxpayer dollars.”
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“So, this idea of you haven’t had a day off, but you know your critics are saying, ‘Well, the House hasn’t been here.’ We hear ‘paid vacation’ for six, seven, eight, weeks that members have not been here,” Bream said, following up on Johnson’s assertion. “And listen, I’ve heard from Republicans, too, some of them frustrated that there wasn’t work happening here on issues that could have been handled outside of the shutdown.”
“There are about three of them that were frustrated — 99.9% of House Republicans were united in that,” Johnson responded. “They have said, publicly and privately, they’ve had some of their best work of their careers during the shutdown, because they were in their districts with their constituents, helping them navigate through the chaos of the shutdown that the Democrats created.”
“Remember, the Democrats in Congress voted 16 times to keep the government closed, to bring on the longest shutdown in U.S. history, and to exact all this pain on the people. And for what?” the speaker continued. “They got nothing out of it and I think that’s why you see the backlash against the Democrat leadership, because we try to talk them out of that and we couldn’t.”
District work periods allow members of the House extended time to meet with their constituents face-to-face in their home districts and attend community events with them, such as town halls, roundtables and forums. The lower chamber usually observes such a period annually during its August recess; however, Johnson decided to call another recess during the shutdown several weeks later.
The congressional tradition of devoting the month of August to district work was officially instituted in the early 1970s, according to a July 28 press release from House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole.
Over two dozen House Democrats led by Democratic Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz introduced a resolution to require the lower chamber to stay in session during government shutdowns. Other Democrats had accused Johnson of avoiding a vote on a discharge petition to release files related to deceased child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The House plans to vote on the petition Tuesday.
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