For Mike Johnson, not showing up is the entire battle.
The speaker made clear Thursday — nine days into the government shutdown — he is committed to keeping the House out of session as long as it takes to pressure Senate Democrats to act on the stopgap funding bill his chamber passed three weeks ago.
Johnson is holding firm on the indefinite recess strategy even as pressure mounts inside his own conference to bring members back to Washington, with more and more GOP lawmakers prodding him to change course.
“There is absolutely no reason for the House to be out of session — it’s embarrassing,” Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) said in an interview. “The government is shut down, Americans are losing access to critical services, workers are being furloughed and the House isn’t even in Washington.”
Dozens of House Republicans are begging Johnson to reconvene the House to advance a standalone bill to pay troops during the shutdown, so active-duty servicemembers don’t miss their paychecks Oct. 15. That includes Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York — a member of Johnson’s own leadership team.
Senior House Republicans and leadership aides are mindful of the growing unrest. But they fear the alternative: Bringing members back to Washington without a resolution to the shutdown in hand, they believe, would invite chaos.
“We’d have people tearing each other from limb to limb,” said one senior GOP aide granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal party thinking.
Johnson, who clashed in the hallway this week with two Democratic senators over the shutdown, acknowledged those concerns Thursday.
“Emotions are high. People are upset — I’m upset,” he said. “Is it better for them, probably, to be physically separated right now? Yeah, it probably is, frankly.”
GOP leaders have drawn a hard line on a variety of tactics their members have proposed. But some in the GOP who were already wary of the looming troop pay deadline were rattled by the speaker’s remarkable C-SPAN exchange with a Republican military mom Thursday morning, in which she begged him to advance the standalone troop pay bill, warning her medically fragile children “could die.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be any consolation to members of our military who miss paychecks to say, ‘Oh well, it is the Senate’s fault,’” Kiley said.
But Johnson counseled Republicans to say exactly that in a private call Thursday, saying the best message would be to tell voters “we’ve done our job” and now the onus is on Senate Democrats to reopen the government.
One option being pushed by the group concerned about troop pay is to try to pass that legislation by unanimous consent on the floor during Friday’s pro forma session, which would not require calling members back to Washington.
“If we have a way to make sure our troops get their paychecks, we should pursue that,” Kiley said.
GOP Reps. Jay Obernolte of California and Julie Fedorchak of North Dakota warned the speaker directly on the Thursday call about the political fallout of keeping the House in recess as the Senate standoff continues.
At least one Senate Republican shared that sentiment: “I think you’ve got to be here,” Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said. “The leadership of the House and other members, I think they should be here.”
But some in the House GOP fired back across the Capitol, arguing Senate Republicans should simply go “nuclear” and change their chamber’s rules to pass the House continuing resolution with a simple majority vote.
“You need to get rid of this cloture vote so you can do what the American people want us to do,” Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.) said. Senate Majority Leader John Thune ruled out that possibility Thursday.
The back-and-forth among Republicans underscored the risks for Johnson of bringing all 432 members back to town. Not only would he have to contend with a barrage of potential off-message comments about the shutdown, he would have to tackle the Jeffrey Epstein saga — with his promised swearing-in of Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) likely forcing a long-awaited floor vote on the late sex offender.
Rutherford is one of many rank-and-file House Republicans who are backing up Johnson’s strategy, arguing there’s no reason at the moment to bring members back. Rutherford, a GOP appropriator, said “there’s nothing to do.” That includes the nine fiscal 2026 appropriations bills the House still needs to pass — because, he said, lawmakers have not yet reached a topline agreement with the Senate on how much those bills will spend.
But then there is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a MAGA stalwart who has taken the rare step of openly bashing Johnson’s strategy — and backing up Democrats’ focus on an impending health care “crisis.” Her critical comments have incensed many of the speaker’s leadership allies and rank-and-file Republicans alike.
“I’m not putting the blame” on President Donald Trump, she said in a CNN interview Thursday. “I’m actually putting the blame on the speaker and Leader Thune in the Senate. This should not be happening.”
Trump’s interests, however, continue complicating matters for Republicans on Capitol Hill. While Johnson and Thune try to pin servicemembers’ potential missed Oct. 15 paychecks on Democrats, the president has publicly promised this week that he wouldn’t let troops go unpaid. White House officials privately say they are considering how to shift funds to ensure the checks go out.
One Senate Republican said Thursday night their understanding for now is “the White House is going to take care of it.”
GOP leadership circles have been increasingly frustrated by the White House position, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss private sentiments. But among those House Republicans supporting White House action include Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois, the Veterans Affairs Committee chair.
“If we find that there’s a way that the administration can do it, then more power to them,” said Bost. “But right now, [Democrats] all of a sudden, asking us to take a vote we’ve already made three weeks ago makes no sense.”
