Republican leaders on Friday canceled all House votes next week as the shutdown drags on with no sign of a resolution.
Votes had been scheduled for four days next week: Tuesday through Friday. All have been canceled.
The announcement was read on the chamber floor during a short pro forma session, a routine procedure allowing one chamber to pause floor activities for days at a time without the consent of the other.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had previewed the cancellation earlier in the day, when he warned that he won’t bring the House back into session until Senate Democrats help to reopen the government, which was shuttered Oct. 1.
"We will come back, and get back to legislative session, as soon as the Senate Democrats turn the lights back on," Johnson told reporters in the Capitol. "That's the fact. That's where we are."
Johnson had already canceled House activity on the last two days of September, and again this week, when four days of votes were previously scheduled. The prolonged recess is designed to put pressure on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to drop his opposition to the GOP bill and help Republicans reopen the government.
Yet Democrats have held firm in that opposition. All but three Democratic senators have voted against it seven times in recent weeks. And there’s no indication they’re ready to reverse course.
Instead, Democratic leaders are digging in — and hammering GOP leaders for refusing to call the House back to Washington to launch bipartisan talks.
“Donald Trump can find the time to play golf, but he can't be bothered negotiating a bipartisan agreement to reopen the government and address the healthcare crisis that they've created. And House Republicans remain on vacation for three weeks,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters Friday in the Capitol.
The cancellation of House votes also delays the swearing in of Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who won a special election last month. Democrats have accused Johnson of refusing to swear in Grijalva during a pro forma session — as he had done for a pair of Republicans earlier in the year — because the Speaker doesn’t want her to endorse a discharge petition forcing the release of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Johnson has denied that charge.