The corridors in federal office buildings across the country are quieter than usual. National Parks are closed. The Smithsonian museums have shuttered their doors. But there’s one place where it is quiet and shouldn’t be—the House of Representatives side of the Capitol. That’s because Speaker Johnson has sent all the Representatives home and cancelled all business for the third week running.
Just because the government is shutdown doesn’t mean lawmakers are furloughed. In fact, they (and the President) are paid during a shutdown because the Constitution stipulates that they be compensated. So get to work!
Yes, the Senate can’t agree on a Continuing Resolution to reopen government, but that isn’t the only thing they are voting on. Last week, they passed the Pentagon’s annual policy bill, the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. Other small pieces of legislation have passed, committees are holding hearings and voting on nominees. Bottom line—there is work to be done so instead of twiddling their thumbs in their home districts—House lawmakers should be holding hearings and voting on legislation.
The Administration certainly isn’t sitting tight. In fact, they are going overboard and leaning into probably illegal actions during the shutdown. They are simultaneously doing things to mitigate the impact of the shutdown—likely prolonging it—and doing things to make it more painful.
On the mitigation side, they have directed that the Pentagon tap into excess Research and Development accounts to pay servicemembers who normally get paid out of personnel accounts. It’s not that we don’t want servicemembers to be paid—we want the shutdown to end and all federal personnel to be paid—but using funds appropriated for one thing (R&D) and instead spending it for a different thing (pay) likely violates the Purpose Statute (executive branch has to use funds as Congress intended them to) as well as the Anti-deficiency act (executive branch can’t spend money without appropriations for that purpose).
The Anti-deficiency Act also comes into play in the effort to make the shutdown more painful. The Administration has been firing federal employees using a RIF (Reduction in Force), with at least 4,000 terminated and Office of Management and Budget Director Vought targeting more than 10,000. A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking some of these firings. Taking advantage of a shutdown to fire furloughed employees violates the laws establishing normal RIF procedures. It also creates the perverse situation where funding will be restored when government reopens, but there will be no employees to pay or do the work Congress has funded. Again, there are legitimate uses of RIFs, but taking advantage of a shutdown to fire furloughed employees is not one of them.
This all gets back to Congress needing to do its job. Senate Republicans need to pick up just five additional Democrats to enact a CR—they currently have three Democrats and lost one Republican. There is some deal to be had if they would only make it.
The Democrats are holding out because they want to extend Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) premium subsidies. Republicans correctly note these don’t expire until December 31st. But they ignore the fact that open enrollment for the ACA starts November 1st—just two weeks away. Who in their right mind is going to pick a plan when they don’t know what the premium will be? Republicans have said they will negotiate on the subsidies, just not during the shutdown. The longer this drags on, the harder that argument becomes, especially with Speaker Johnson warning this could become the longest shutdown in history. Meanwhile, the House-passed CR only goes through November 21st. So, it may be a relatively short-term CR when this gets through.
Americans are working. Federal employees want to work. Congress should too. Every day they delay, taxpayers pay the price.
