Congress Leaves Unfinished Business as Long Recess Begins

As the House and Senate prepare to go on summer recess, there is a lot of unfinished business left for Republicans.

The August recess is a routine district and state work period for lawmakers, but the leadership teams’ decisions on when to go on break carry a lot of weight now.

In the House, Republicans are still debating how to handle Democrats’ motions to release Justice Department files on the now-deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In the Senate, leadership is debating whether to cancel part of the August recess to focus on confirming President Donald Trump’s executive branch and judicial nominees and reaching bipartisan appropriations deals with Democrats.

Here’s where Republicans are leaving things on Capitol Hill:

House Shutters Amid Epstein Drama

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., is ending the House’s session early on Wednesday, instead of Thursday, likely due in part to a fierce debate over whether to compel the release of files on Epstein.

Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., have a discharge petition to force a vote on legislation compelling the Trump administration to release the Epstein files. This bill, which has 11 Republicans and 13 Democrats as cosponsors, could very likely pass if it went to the floor.

In the House Rules Committee, the last stop before a bill comes to the floor, Democrats have been advancing motions to push for a release of the files, putting Republican members in an awkward position.

Johnson is between a rock and a hard place. He simultaneously wants to support the Republican-controlled White House’ handling of a difficult case, while also denying Democrats a messaging win with their accusations that the GOP lacks transparency on Epstein.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

Johnson said Tuesday that he would not tolerate these political showdowns in the Rules Committee, opting instead to allow the White House to handle the Epstein situation.

“We are not going to let them use this as a political battering ram. The Rules Committee became the ground for them to do that. We’re not going to allow them to engage in that charade anymore,” Johnson said at his weekly press conference.

Khanna is accusing Johnson of ending the session in an effort to delay a discharge petition coming to the floor, which would compel a vote on the Epstein bill.

“The reality is that Mike Johnson is trying to recess the Congress because there’s this arcane rule that the bill has to be there for seven days before you can get all of the signatures, and it’s been there for about four days, so he wants to adjourn so that we can wait until after Labor Day,” Khanna said Tuesday.

Johnson previously wrote a nonbinding resolution calling for the release of information on Epstein, which passed the Rules Committee, but was not advanced to the House floor.

On Tuesday, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who serves on the Rules Committee, expressed frustration Tuesday over the lack of a Republican motion to show concern for the Epstein situation.

“I led Republicans in a serious resolution—that protects victims—to expose the truth about the Epstein files, just like President Trump promised. But leadership is stalling,” Norman wrote on the social media platform X. “The American people deserve action, not excuses. Let’s vote on it before August recess and get it DONE!!”

It does not appear that will happen.

It remains unclear whether the Epstein flare-up will continue smoldering into September, but Johnson suggests the issue will be resolved in due time.

“We’re going to do the right thing here. And the American people will see that we did that in the right way and in the right timetable,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday.

Senate Leader Considers Summer in Washington

Republican Senate leadership, which has its plate full with yearly budget negotiations and confirming Trump’s nominees, just might cut senators’ home state work period short.

On Saturday, Trump urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to keep senators in town to confirm more of his nominees.

“Hopefully the very talented John Thune, fresh off our many victories over the past two weeks and, indeed, 6 months, will cancel August recess (and long weekends!), in order to get my incredible nominees confirmed. We need them badly!!!” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social.

On Tuesday, Thune said at his weekly press conference that it might be necessary to stay around, depending on Democrats’ conduct.

“With respect to the August recess, that really is a function of, again, whether or not the Democrats are willing to cooperate and help us get some of these nominees through the pipeline. So, we’re keeping those options on the table, honestly, because there’s just a lot of stuff we have to get done.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., has joined in on Trump’s calls to shorten the recess.

“With Senate Democrats relentlessly obstructing and stalling every single routine vote, we must show resolve by staying in session to push through these essential nominees and ‘America First’ priorities,” Lummis said in a statement Tuesday.

“The American people delivered a decisive mandate for President Trump and a Republican Senate majority to implement this agenda,” she said. “We cannot let them down.”

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