WASHINGTON – Mike Johnson is the speaker of a House that is no longer in session.

The Republican leader sent lawmakers home three weeks ago after the House approved a bill to fund the federal government. And they haven’t been back in working session since.

In the intervening weeks, the government has shut down. President Donald Trump threatened a mass firing of federal workers. And a Democrat, Adelita Grijalva, won a special election in Arizona but has not been sworn into office to take her seat in Congress.

“People are upset. I’m upset. I’m a very patient man, but I am angry right now,” Johnson said during one of his almost daily press conferences on the empty side of the Capitol.

“The House did its job,” said Johnson, of Louisiana. There’s nothing left to negotiate, he says, arguing it’s up to the Senate, which is also controlled by Republicans, to act. “That ball has been sent to the other court.”

To stay or go, no easy choices ahead

The House’s absence is creating a risky political dilemma for Johnson. It’s testing his leadership, his grip on the gavel and the legacy he will leave as speaker of a House that is essentially writing itself off the page at a crucial moment in the national debate.

There are few easy choices on the schedule ahead. If the speaker calls lawmakers back to Washington, he opens the doors to a potentially chaotic atmosphere of anger, uncertainty and his own GOP defections and divisions as the shutdown drags toward a third week.

But by keeping the representatives away, lawmakers risk being criticized for being absent during a crisis — “on vacation,” as House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries puts it — as the military goes without pay and government services shut down.

Johnson’s initial strategy to avoid the government shutdown was a well-worn one — have the House pass its bill, leave town right before the deadline and force the Senate to accept it. Jamming the other chamber, as it’s often called. And it often works.

But this time, it’s a strategy that is failing.

As House skips town, blame falls to Senate

GOP senators have been unable to heave the House bill to passage, blocked by most of the Democrats, who are refusing to reopen the government as they demand health care funds for insurance subsidies that will expire at year’s end if Congress fails to act.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has been trying, repeatedly, to peel off more Democratic support.

But after having called a vote more than a half-dozen times to pass the House’s bill out of the Senate, not enough Democrats have signed on as they hold out for a deal on the health care issue.

Stalemated, quiet talks are underway, as small groups of lawmakers are privately trying to negotiate off-ramps.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has proposed keeping the health care subsidies in place for the next two years while instituting changes to the program. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., has a similar proposal, and GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has shared with leadership her own six-point plan.

“We’re making progress,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who is close to the Republican president. “I think we’re kind of starting to get to a place.”

Empty halls and viral moments

Not since then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, sent lawmakers home at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 has the House been without its lawmakers for such an extended period of time outside of an August recess — but even then, leaders quickly stood up a new system of proxy voting as legislative business continued.

In the Capitol’s empty halls, a few lawmakers linger. They have been filming social media posts as they narrate the inaction. They have created viral moments, including GOP Rep. Mike Lawler’s confrontation with Jeffries. Some are simply giving tours to visiting constituents.

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has been among the most outspoken critic of her party’s stance, saying Congress needs to address the subsidies.

And Grijalva is just trying to go to work.

The representative-elect won the special election to replace her father, veteran Rep. Raul Grijalva, who died earlier this year after his own career in Congress.

Her arrival would shrink Johnson’s already slim majority to paper thin, and she has said she would sign onto the legislation demanding the release of the files pertaining to the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, providing the last signature needed to force a vote. Democrats have clamored for the release of the Epstein files, looking to force Republicans to either join their push for disclosure or publicly oppose a cause many in the Republican base support.

Johnson, whose majority is among the most narrow in modern times, has refused to swear Grijalva into office.

House’s newest member waits and waits

The speaker has given shifting reasons for why he won’t allow Grijalva to take her seat, saying he’d do it whenever she wanted but also saying the shutdown needs to end first.

He said it has nothing to do with the Epstein files.

As questions mounted over the House’s next steps, so did the speaker’s exasperation.

“We had the vote. The House has done its job,” he said during Thursday’s press conference.

“The reason the House isn’t here in regular session is because they turned the lights off,” he said. “I’m trying to muster every ounce of Christian charity that I can, but this is outrageous.”

He declined to say if or when the House would be called back to session.

“We’ll keep you posted,” he said. “And let’s pray this ends soon.”

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