Mike Johnson May Not Bring the House Back Until Senate Passes Short-Term Funding Bill

Speaker Mike Johnson said he’s not inclined to bring the House back into session until the Senate passes the House’s continuing resolution and has canceled a House session for next week.

At a joint press conference with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Johnson said that the House would come back into session only after the Senate passes the continuing resolution that Republicans in the House passed in September.

“The House will come back into session and do its work as soon as Chuck Schumer allows us to reopen the government,” Johnson said at a press conference Friday. “That’s plain and simple.”

The speaker is considering a number of options, one of which is not bringing the House back until after the Senate passes the House-passed stopgap funding bill and reopens the government, a source familiar with his thinking told NOTUS. Johnson canceled the House session that was scheduled to start on Tuesday.

A House Republican member call is slated for Saturday, during which some members expect Johnson to talk with them about timing for a return. Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said on Friday that canceling the session was “the right call.”

“Look, there’s not much more we can do until they send us something back,” Cole told NOTUS.

Since the beginning of the shutdown, Johnson has said that he believes the House has done its work, and now it is up to the Senate to pass the GOP-led funding bill. He has slammed the door on negotiating any compromise continuing resolution with Democrats, or any senators for that matter, telling reporters: “I don’t have anything to negotiate.”

Democrats are demanding a compromise on expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies and other health care cuts, though as the Senate continues to vote on the House bill, some Democrats have joined Republicans in supporting the CR.

Senate Minorty Leader Chuck Schumer slammed Johnson for keeping the House in recess and accused him of trying to avoid a vote on releasing the Epstein files. A discharge petition on the Epstein files is close to reaching the necessary 218 signatures, once incoming House Democrat, Adelita Grijalva, is sworn in.

“Johnson and House Republicans care more about protecting the Epstein files than protecting the American people,” he said.

This story has been update to show Johnson canceled the House session that was slated to begin next week.