Speaker Mike Johnson Rejects Calls to Reconvene House Amid Shutdown Stalemate

On day 29 of the government shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pushed back against calls to bring lawmakers back to Washington before the Senate acts on its own spending bill — calling the idea a “futile exercise” and criticizing Democrats for what he described as a “misguided” shutdown strategy.

“If I brought the House back, and we passed another CR, it would meet the exact same fate with Chuck Schumer. He would mock it, they would spike it, and they would try to blame it on us. So what’s the point?” Johnson told reporters Wednesday.

The House has not voted since September 19, when it approved a clean stopgap bill to keep the government open through November 21. Johnson has since hinted that he’s prepared to let that deadline pass without additional action — challenging the Democrat-controlled Senate to produce its own legislation.

In an interview with Axios last week, Johnson said Republicans are taking things “day-by-day.” He defended the November deadline as “calculated to allow enough time to finish the job,” though he acknowledged that “it is going to be more and more difficult with each passing hour to get all the appropriations done on time.”

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