It’s been three weeks since House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers back to their districts, and Republicans are growing seriously tired of his work-from-home strategy.
During a private conference call with House Republicans on Thursday, at least three lawmakers expressed concern about keeping the House out of session after it passed a stopgap funding bill that never made it through the Senate, sources said. MSNBC.
California Rep. Jay Obernolte warned that staying home would make it look like Republicans were “prioritizing politics over government.”
“I think we’re going to get to a point where it will be detrimental to keep the House out of session,” he said.
Oklahoma Rep. Stephanie Bice said she had “concerns” about lawmakers staying in their districts during the government shutdown, and that constituents are probably “wondering why we’re not there,” according to a source. He warned leaders to imagine the optics of staying home next week, when lawmakers could just as easily relay messages from Washington.
North Dakota Rep. Julie Fedorchak expressed a similar sentiment, arguing that her messaging would be stronger and more consistent if everyone wasn’t working from home.
Some Republicans have already publicly expressed their disapproval.
California Rep. Kevin Kiley bristled at the speaker’s statement. comment Thursday, claiming the House would likely remain out of session for another week because “we’ve already done our job.”
“What the House has done is pass a 7-week Continuing Resolution. The only reason a CR is necessary is because Congress has not done its job by passing a budget on time,” Kiley wrote in X. “The Speaker should not even think about canceling the session for the third consecutive week.”
Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has found herself disagree with the party leadershiphas crashed Johnson all week for sending lawmakers home.
“I think she should really reconvene the House for many reasons. We have appropriations bills that need to be passed. There is a new Democrat that has been elected who deserves to be sworn in. Her district elected her. We have other bills that we need to pass,” Greene told CNN on Thursday. “Any serious House speaker is going to build consensus within their conference behind a plan. It’s not something secret that they work on in a committee.”
Earlier this week, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie suggested that Johnson had dispersed lawmakers to avoid swearing in Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, who would be the tie-breaking vote in a petition to dismiss Jeffrey Epstein’s files in their entirety. When pressed on the matter Tuesday, Johnson fought to explain why she was waiting for the House to be in full session, when she could be sworn in in a brief pro forma session.