Johnson cancels House votes before midterm recess

House Speaker Mike Johnson canceled the chamber’s planned Thursday votes, cutting short lawmakers’ final week in Washington before a recess that will keep them away from Capitol Hill until after the November midterm elections.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said Wednesday that members should return to their districts to campaign and speak with voters. “The House has done its work,” he told reporters at the Capitol. “It’s time for our members to go home to their districts and make their case to the American people.”

The move follows Johnson’s earlier cancellation of votes for the last two weeks in September. House members are expected to be away from Washington for more than six weeks, leaving several unresolved issues until after Election Day.

Before leaving town, the House was expected to vote on legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia and a bill meant to shield consumers from data center energy costs. The Guardian reported that House leadership also told members that votes on Environmental Protection Agency regulations originally planned for Thursday would instead take place Wednesday afternoon. A spokesperson for Johnson described the schedule change as moving up votes rather than canceling future ones.

Some lawmakers sharply criticized the decision. Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, called the cancellation “unacceptable” and wrote on X that the House has canceled “at least 63 scheduled voting days this Congress, including nine days this month alone.” He added: “The Founders did not envision taking this much time off and still getting paid.”

Democrats accused Johnson of avoiding politically difficult votes. Rep. Pramila Jayapal told MeidasTouch, according to The Guardian, “I think it shows the cowardice of the Republican party. They are canceling votes to do business for the American people because they are afraid that that impeachment resolution of Pete Hegseth would pass on a bipartisan basis.”

The impeachment resolution was introduced Tuesday by Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger. Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the Iran war. Because the resolution is privileged, Johnson has two legislative days to act on it. Canceling Thursday’s votes pushes the issue to early November, when Johnson has indicated Republicans will move to table it.

Johnson rejected the suggestion that the schedule change was designed to avoid the Hegseth vote. “It’s a publicity stunt by someone who wants attention. It will immediately be tabled, of course,” he said.

Massie told CNN on Tuesday night that he did not warn Republican leaders about the filing. “I didn’t want to show my hand,” he said. “I didn’t show it to anybody. I was afraid that they would do something to subvert me getting on the floor for an hour and 20 minutes and reading these articles.”

The early departure also comes as Democrats press for action on artificial intelligence. More than 100 House Democrats urged Johnson in a letter to cancel the recess so lawmakers could craft AI safeguards, The Guardian reported. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday, “Congress should not leave town until something is done decisively to protect the safety and the well-being of the American people.”

Johnson has resisted urgent regulation, saying companies should be able to “self-police” and “self-regulate.” He told reporters Tuesday, “If I called an emergency session today and I brought everybody in the House and said, ‘Let’s regulate AI,’ nobody in the room knows yet what that should look like.” He also warned, “We cannot have a moratorium on the development of AI. Because then we will lose our edge to China.”

Congress also has not renewed Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a key spy authority that expired in June. The Senate is scheduled to remain in session through the end of September and is working on a college sports bill and a bipartisan permitting overhaul. Johnson said that if senators advance major legislation, “I will bring the House back on 48-hours’ notice.”