The House on Wednesday broke for its weeks-long August recess, closing up shop one day earlier than planned as the chamber remained in a logjam over the Jeffrey Epstein controversy.
The lower chamber is not scheduled to reconvene until Sept. 2 six weeks from now when lawmakers will dive into the sprint to avoid a government shutdown by the Sept. 30 funding deadline.
House GOP leaders sent members home one day early on Wednesday rather than Thursday as the chamber was unable to move any legislation through the House Rules Committee amid a rebellion over the push to disclose the Epstein files.
Democrats on the panel had vowed to force another vote on their amendment to consider a bipartisan bill calling for the release of the Epstein files, but Republican committee members did not want to vote it down as is customary for members of the majority to do to measures brought by the minority party because of the wrath they received from the MAGA base on a similar vote the previous week.
As a result of that earlier vote, Republicans on the panel advanced a non-binding resolution calling for the release of some Epstein documents days later, an attempt to gain political cover for the GOP lawmakers on the committee.
That effort, however, has not been enough to quell the interest among Democrats and some Republicans to force a floor vote on the bipartisan resolution compelling the publication of the documents, leading to the bottleneck in the Rules Committee and prompting leaders to let members go home one day early.
In remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pushed back on the idea that the House was leaving early because of the Epstein saga.
“We are fulfilling the calendar,” Johnson said. “We’re working, we’ll be working tomorrow, there will’ve been votes every day this week, we have nine or 10 committees working through markups this week, many tomorrow. Congress is doing its work, no one is adjourning early.”
“We have an August district work period that is very important to the function of Congress that has been recognized for all of memory of this institution, and that is what everyone will be doing,” he continued, later adding that “Republicans are preventing Democrats from making a mockery of the Rules Committee process because we refuse to engage in their political charade.”
Democrats, meanwhile, have pinned the early recess on the Epstein controversy.
“Instead of doing their jobs, instead of standing up for kids, for families, instead of standing on the side of transparency and accountability, Republicans are running away all to avoid the release of the Epstein client list, all to cover up for pedophiles,” House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) said Wednesday.
Aside from the Epstein saga, members over recess are planning to head back to their districts to message on the “big, beautiful bill” Republicans enacted earlier this month, with GOP lawmakers selling it to constituents and Democratic lawmakers making their case to the public of why it is a harmful piece of legislation.
Both parties are eyeing the legislation as key to their messaging plan ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
It remains unclear how the House will function when lawmakers return from August recess. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is vowing to file a discharge petition to force a floor vote on his resolution co-sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) which will not be ready for action until September, meaning the issue will still be prevalent when lawmakers come back to Washington.
