House Speaker Johnson sends lawmakers home early, cutting remaining votes

104 laws enacted this session trails every predecessor since the Civil War

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) dismissed House lawmakers early on Wednesday, cutting planned Thursday votes and calling off the rest of the chamber’s scheduled work to send members home until after the November general election. The decision came despite criticism from members of both parties that Congress has unfinished business on gasoline prices, artificial-intelligence safeguards, and a bipartisan sexual-misconduct measure.

Johnson told reporters Tuesday that “Congress is not on recess,” saying that “our members can be doing more and better work for their constituents and their districts over the next couple weeks than here, just kind of running in circles.” On Wednesday, he said by his count the House has had its “second most productive session since 1789,” boasting of more than 900 bills passed while blaming the Senate for failing to act on them.

By last week, 104 laws had been enacted in the current Congress, a pace that puts it on track for fewer than any of its predecessors since the Civil War, according to a Wall Street Journal tally. House leaders had already called off two weeks of scheduled work this month before announcing Wednesday that lawmakers would not return Thursday.

Earlier this month, Congress cleared a short-term funding law, pushing a possible government shutdown past the election. House Republicans say the Senate — also led by Republicans — has held up major proposals including the SAVE America Act, a Trump priority that would impose stricter voting rules. Johnson said he would bring the chamber back “with a 48 hours’ notice, and we’ll stay here indefinitely” if the Senate moved on legislation.

A Senate GOP aide called the criticism of the Senate laughable and said the House was leaving town early to avoid making members take hard votes.

Johnson dismissed speculation that the early dismissal was intended to delay a vote forced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.), a critic of the Iran war, on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Johnson said there was no consensus yet on a vote to suspend the federal gas tax, despite calls from some members. Both parties see any artificial-intelligence legislation as some way off; Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.) captured the frustration in four words: “Right now, Congress can’t pass gas.”

Asked why this Congress’s approval ratings are among the weakest, Rep. Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.) said it is because of “the truth.” “I’ve been here eight years, and like I say, these post offices aren’t gonna name themselves,” Burchett said. He conceded he would have liked to see several of his bills move.

Congress is known for short workweeks in Washington, D.C., and long breaks so members can spend time in their home states. Congressional leaders put out a calendar of days lawmakers should expect to be in Washington for votes, totaling more than 100 days this year. But cancellations like those this month whittle that total down, as did a long break last year during the government shutdown.

“Canceling yet another day of votes is unacceptable,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R., S.C.) posted to X on Wednesday, putting the number of canceled voting days at 63 since this Congress started in January 2025. “The Founders did not envision taking this much time off and still getting paid,” Norman wrote.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said the House has unfinished business and they wanted to stick around. Rep. Kat Cammack (R., Fla.) said: “If I were speaker for a day, I would not recess us until our work was done, and our work is far from done.” She cited AI concerns as still needing to be addressed.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) said the House should not be leaving early but added that she would rather be in her district because the chamber doesn’t “do anything of value here.” “If they were running a responsible Congress, no, they should not be continuing to cancel sessions,” she added.

The Democratic and Republican women’s caucuses introduced a bipartisan measure to combat sexual misconduct in May, which Democratic Women’s Caucus chair Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D., N.M.) said would be held up by the early dismissal. The recess comes while the House Ethics Committee is investigating multiple members for sexual misconduct. “We have bipartisan support for it, but when you cancel legislative days, it shrinks our ability to get that work done,” she said.

The House is falling behind the Senate on hours and voting days this Congress, according to an analysis by the centrist group No Labels. From Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, the Senate spent 667 hours in session against the House’s 383. The Senate is scheduled to remain in session until later this month, though there has been speculation that it might also be cut short.

Congress has struggled with low marks from Americans for decades, but repeated government shutdowns, standoffs, and intraparty squabbles have taken a further toll. President Trump’s moves to expand executive authority on war, tariffs, and spending have also weighed on the institution’s standing, the Journal reported. The April Gallup poll put congressional disapproval at 86%, a historic high.

Despite Congress’s poor reputation, some experts say this year’s work has not been an anomaly. J.D. Rackey, associate director of the Structural Democracy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said that “how you measure productivity is truly all over the place,” and added that “some of the metrics, the current Congress is kind of within the average of all the Congresses. That’s not an outlier by any means.”