Some House Republicans Are Ready to Come Back. Mike Johnson Says Not Yet.

It’s been more than 40 days since the House was last in session, and some House Republicans are itching to come back — even if they’re not sure it would end the shutdown.

“My heart says stay in the district and help constituents, my head says if we all were in DC our government would reopen sooner,” one House Republican speaking under condition of anonymity texted NOTUS. “Having traveled to Washington once a week since the shutdown with the off chance of an opportunity to end the grid lock. It’s not been the best use of time.”

“Per usual our opposition are the House Democrats, but the true enemy is the Senate,” the Republican said.

The House’s planned one-week recess has turned into a six-week one. The House-passed government funding bill keeps failing in the Senate. Meanwhile, the Nov. 1 funding deadline is approaching for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Affordable Care Act subsidies are set to hit consumers for open enrollment and the original seven-week extension that Republicans’ funding patch offered has quickly dwindled to a potential three-week extension.

“If I was a House member, I would be getting really restless by not being here,” Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated this week that the House isn’t coming back until the Senate resolves government funding.

“Wouldn’t that be a futile exercise? When we have a CR that’s been sitting over there since September 19th — if I brought the House back, we passed another CR, it would be the exact same thing to Chuck Schumer,” Johnson said Wednesday. “He would mock it, they would spike it, and they would try to blame it on us. So what would be the point of that? We’re all concerned about the timing.”

“It doesn’t matter what we do in the House. It doesn’t matter what we pass,” Johnson added. “We have to get a handful of moderates over there who care about America to do the right thing.”

Johnson is under pressure from some members of his own party to bring them back to Washington.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican critic of the Trump administration, texted NOTUS that the House “should return and vote to pay for the soldiers and air traffic controllers and food stamps,” with a prohibition on sugary drinks, “then proceed to vote on the other single item bills one at a time.”

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has taken to social media to express her frustration. She said Tuesday on X that she gave her conference a piece of her mind on a private conference call. And last week, Greene posted she has “no respect for leadership not calling us back to work.”

“We should be using this time to push through the America First agenda. Passing appropriations bills, codifying President Trump’s executive orders, and doing exactly what the American people mandated us to do last November. Instead, Congress is sitting out while our country needs us in Washington,” she wrote.

Appropriations Chair Tom Cole told NOTUS last week that “if it were up to me,” the House would “come back right away.” He’s been pushing aggressively to get the House back to start addressing appropriations bills.

He said he understands Johnson’s decision to keep the House off Capitol Hill, but that the House “clearly” needs a new CR as its original deadline is on the horizon, which he suggested should be revised to mid-January.

Senior GOP Appropriator Mike Simpson also told NOTUS last week that he would go along with whatever Cole and Johnson decide.

“Most likely, because we’ve wasted three weeks in being able to negotiate things, we’re probably going to have to have another CR,” Simpson said.

Republican Rep. Don Bacon told NOTUS he believes that it’s more important for lawmakers to begin negotiations to extend the ACA subsidies than to have the House back in session.

“I think the Speaker has done a great job,” he said in a text. “I do encourage Republican and Democrats to negotiate the ACA tax credit issue so we can put that agreement in the appropriations bill. This could break the ice jam and get the Senate to vote for the clean CR like they’ve done historically.”

Democrats have especially been seizing on the extended House recess to argue House Republicans are uninterested in resolving the government shutdown.

“It’s extraordinary that Republicans have been on vacation for five weeks, canceled votes five consecutive weeks. They’re getting paid to go camping and hiking and traveling to Europe,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Wednesday.

The House not being in D.C. is holding up much more than just a solution to the shutdown.

“Every piece of legislation you could imagine that we could be dealing with on the floor of the House is being held in addition to appropriations bills or a continuing resolution. How many even bills are out there? What’s on the suspension calendar?” House Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro told NOTUS on Wednesday, adding the House should come back as soon as possible.

Still, some Republicans are holding firm that they don’t need to be in Washington. Sen. Jim Justice told NOTUS the House being away is not a “detriment.”

“If the House were here, what would they be doing? Just sitting over there?” Justice said.

House Republican leadership disputes that they need to be physically in Washington to get work done. A House Republican familiar with leadership discussions told reporters Wednesday that phone and Zoom calls are enough to continue discussions and work without House members coming back, saying they “don’t get” the concern about not being here in person that’s come from “a handful of members.”

The House Republican said they see other members “craving” to “get back to regular order,” but that can’t happen until the government reopens.

The member agreed with Cole’s position to extend the CR deadline into mid-January — or as late as February — and they “highly doubt” all appropriations will get done by the current CR deadline.

When the House does come back and the government reopens, “buckle up,” the Republican said. Members can expect long days, late nights and doubled-up hearings.

“Everything that we haven’t been able to do this month, we will do,” the lawmaker said.