House leaves DC for August recess with 13 more work days before election

The House of Representatives took its final vote of the week at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 25. Members then ran out to their cars to hop on a plane and go home for August recess.

The representatives left without finalizing appropriations bills for fiscal year 2025. Now, members will have to pass a continuing resolution (CR) when they return in September in order to keep the government funded.

“The reality is Sept. 30 is the government funding deadline and I'm sure they're going to be putting a CR in front of us," Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said. "I will not be continuing Nancy Pelosi's budget from last Congress. I'm not voting for that. But that should be the conversation that our leadership is having with us. But instead, we're flying out today going back to our districts for our August recess with no plan.”

The House is only scheduled to be in Washington 13 days between now and the week after the election. The Senate is scheduled to be working in D.C. for up to 21 days.

However, one member pushed back on the idea that time away from Washington is a vacation.

“We don't have to be physically here to be working on all these pieces of legislation," Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., said. "We coordinate with each other all the time. I mean, they call it a break. It ain't a break, dude.”

Van Orden then took out his phone and showed a full calendar.

“We don't go home and sit on the beach and have Mai Tai's, we go work our asses off.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. , said he is still deciding whether to put forward a continuing resolution that would fund the government through December or January.

Either way, getting a full spending package signed into law for all of fiscal year 2025 will likely roll over into the new year, after the new Congress and president are sworn in.

Democrats blame Republicans for the delay.

“If the Republicans had agreed to the top line numbers that they agreed to last year under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, then we could work in a bipartisan way and get this done," Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said. "But they have reneged on that agreement. And they are putting, trying to put forward very partisan poison pills appropriations bills that they know have no chance of becoming law.”

Republicans blame the Democratic-controlled Senate.

“Honest to goodness, if we could get some of the bills that we've already passed through the Senate I would be overjoyed,” Van Orden said. “I have so many very high quality pieces of legislation, including the farm bill, that we got through in a bipartisan manner that we can't seem to get. They’re right down there. I don't know if they're there. If they would show up to work, that'd be awesome.”

The House passed five out of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fully fund the government. Members did it on a partisan basis, so they would likely never pass the Senate without serious negotiations and compromise.

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