House Republicans start recess early after failing to keep promises

Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced prior to the July 22 work week that the House of Representatives would vote on a 2025 appropriations bill for the Department of Energy and other agencies that oversee energy and water. With Republicans divided and unable to gather sufficient votes to pass that bill, he and other GOP leaders announced on July 24 that they would instead go on recess until early September, postponing votes on other spending bills.

“When you have a situation where the Democrats all vote no on every appropriations bill, you eventually hit a wall because, you know, we have a few of our own members that vote against some of these bills,” Scalise (R-LA) told The Hill. 

“I’ve got concerns about all of them right now,” Arkansas Republican Rep. Steve Womack told the outlet, describing efforts to advance the annual spending bills needed to keep the federal government running. “We’re struggling to get it passed.”

In October 2023, before House Republicans elected him the new speaker of the House, Louisiana Republican Rep. Mike Johnson said that if given the position, he would not send members home for 2024 summer recess unless they first passed all 2025 spending bills. “DO NOT break for district work period unless all 12 appropriations bills have passed the House,” he wrote in a letter to colleagues posted by Politico.

Republicans ran in 2022 on a “Commitment to America” that if they won back a majority in the House, they would “deliver an economy that’s strong, a nation that’s safe, a future that’s built on freedom, and a government that’s accountable” and pass legislation to lower the cost of living.

That did not happen. Plagued by infighting, party leaders frequently had to cancel votes on legislation that lacked the needed support or saw their proposals defeated on the floor. 

In all of 2023, just 34 bills or resolutions became law — well below the average of 195 a year over the past two decades, according to data from the website GovTrack. Few of those 34 measures had anything to do with Republicans’ stated policy priorities: Three were stopgap funding bills, three were resolutions appointing regents to the board of regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and one authorized a commemorative coin to honor the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Republicans have refused to hold votes on bills offered by Democratic lawmakers aimed at capping the cost of insulin, raising the federal minimum wage, ensuring equal pay for women, restoring abortion rights, guaranteeing the right to contraception, and expanding family leave.