House Cancels Two Weeks Of Work After Brief Return

House leadership announced Thursday the legislative session for the final two weeks of September would be cancelled without resolving debt or mass surveillance issues.

The House initially intended to be in session for the first and final two weeks of September, although House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s office announced that votes were not expected. The chamber was expected to leave Washington after the national debt surpassed $40 trillion, and the body did not address mass surveillance or resolve divisions with the Senate on a reconciliation package.

“Members are advised that votes are not expected in the House during the weeks of September 21st and September 28th,” Emmer’s office said. “Pending Senate adoption of H. Con. Res. 113, votes are possible in the House during the weeks of September 21st and 28th, and Members will be given at least 48 hours’ notice prior to any votes.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson argued the chamber successfully passed hundreds of pieces of legislation throughout the session and that many members wanted more time to campaign ahead of the midterm elections. He clarified that members may be called back into session.

“I’ll point out that there’s almost 600 pieces of that landmark legislation that are still sitting over in the other chamber in the Senate. So, we need to get more and more of that done through both chambers so we can get them to the President’s desk. This Congress has done phenomenal work and the members are wrestling a lot of different priorities right now,” Johnson said.

“Of course we’re in the middle of a critical midterm election,” the speaker continued. “Many of them want and need to be in their districts working with their constituents and running their campaigns and so we’re trying to balance all those interests and needs right now. We still have a lot more left to do in this Congress and a lot more we’d like to do. We’re sending out a notice this morning about the schedule for the end of September and we’re on a 48-hour notice to get back here for those last two weeks if the Senate will move some of these big products that are still awaiting action over there.”

Members of Congress bemoaned the national debt surpassing $40 trillion despite them repeatedly voting for legislation that contributed to the debt. They voted for the $3.4 trillion One Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBB) and the $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), among others.

While some floated the idea, not a single member introduced a bill to ban Flock Safety cameras or other automated surveillance technologies. Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie introduced legislation to withhold federal funding from local municipalities and police departments using Flock and ALPRs. Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said she would introduce legislation to ban the cameras, though it hadn’t been introduced.

Republican Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett introduced the “Protection Against Mass Surveillance Act” in July to ban federal agencies from purchasing or operating Flock cameras or any form of automated surveillance that “identify, track, or record individuals.”

House Republicans were prioritizing the passage of the $95 billion reconciliation package, which they wanted the Senate to pass before October. Senators threatened to delay passing the reconciliation package until a stopgap funding bill was passed, and some Senate Republicans expressed skepticism over the House’s version of the reconciliation bill.

House leaders were expected to pressure the Senate to pass the package. The Senate was not set to return from August recess until Sept. 14, giving them an even shorter window to pass the budget resolution.

Five House Republicans voted against a rule Tuesday to protest provisions in the continuing resolution (CR), including a delay on banning hemp THC products. Two Democrats voted for it, causing it to pass. If the rule did not pass, the floor would have shut down and disrupted leadership’s agenda.