The government may be shut down and the House isn’t in session — but lawmakers are having debates in the halls of the Capitol.
As Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego were talking to reporters outside of Speaker Mike Johnson’s office — raging against the Louisiana Republican for not swearing in their state’s Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva — Johnson himself joined the scrum.
As @SenMarkKelly and @RubenGallego slam Speaker Mike Johnson for 1) having the House on recess during a shutdown and 2) not swearing in Adelita Grijalva, Johnson comes out of his office and a debate starts 👀 pic.twitter.com/4uOO7HAlHX
— Daniella Diaz (@DaniellaMicaela) October 8, 2025
“We’re happy that she got elected. She’s filling her father’s seat. That’s fantastic. We have a long tradition here and a process of how we administer the oath to a member,” Johnson told the senators, during an extended back-and-forth that lasted nearly seven minutes and was witnessed by dozens of reporters.
At one point, New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler joined the debate with Johnson, and slammed the senators for not supporting the Republican bill to keep the government open as the shutdown reaches day eight on Wednesday.
“We’ve actually put forward the legislation to do it,” a visibly frustrated Lawler told the senators. “You guys just keep pontificating.”
At issue during the spontaneous debate between the House Republicans and Democratic senators is the ongoing fingerpointing between the two parties over the shutdown.
Republicans blame Democrats for the shutdown, after most of the caucus continues to vote against a bill passed by House Republicans that would keep the government open through Nov. 21. Democrats have been calling for bipartisan negotiations to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, which Republicans say they won’t do until the government reopens.
Democrats are also calling for Grijalva to be sworn in during a pro forma session, which Johnson has done in the past with Republican Reps. Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine. They say Johnson is delaying swearing in Grijalva because she would become the 218th signature on Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie’s discharge petition that would trigger the House to vote to compel the Department of Justice to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“I’m not blocking her,” Johnson said to Gallego and Kelly. “This has nothing to do with Epstein.”
He later added: “You see this is a publicity stunt. Let me tell you what’s happening. The House Oversight Committee is working on the release of the Epstein files,” Johnson said.