House leaves town until September with little to show voters

WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders have canceled next week’s work session and sent lawmakers home for a six-week summer recess with little to brag about to constituents and voters heading into the final months before the election.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his leadership team had hoped to pass all 12 bills that fund the government before the long August recess, setting up negotiations with the Democratic-led Senate on how to keep the government open ahead of a shutdown deadline on Sept. 30.

But that goal now looks out of reach with the House not returning until Sept. 9, leaving just three weeks to avert a shutdown. The House has already passed five funding bills and had planned to take up four more this week. But leaders managed to push through only one of them — focused on the Department of Interior — and yanked three others over intraparty disputes and the GOP’s minuscule three-seat majority.

“They can’t pass their own bills. They haven’t been able to pass their own bills all Congress. This is nothing new,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.

Both the House and Senate need to pass all 12 bills to fund the government for the 2025 fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. A stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, to temporarily keep the lights on is now likely with the election fast approaching.

The House’s final vote before departing town on Thursday was a nonbinding GOP messaging bill, strongly condemning “border czar” Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s likely presidential nominee, for failing to secure the border. A half dozen vulnerable Democrats joined all Republicans in voting yes.

“Extreme MAGA Republicans have been in the majority for over 18 months. Can anyone name a single thing that