House Cancels Final Two Weeks of September Votes, Leaving Four Work Days Before Midterms

The House of Representatives abruptly canceled the final two weeks of votes for September, effectively giving the House four days of work before the midterm elections and not being in session during August.

The move comes 60 days before the midterm elections polling shows Democrats poised to win control of the House of Representatives.

But it also comes as Republicans still face major questions about President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpopular war in Iran, the rising cost of living and the president’s plans for overhauling the nation’s capital.

The House passed a continuing resolution earlier this week to keep the government open until December, sending the bill the Senate passed before the recess to the president’s desk. That averted a government shutdown.

House Speaker Mike Johnson continues to face an unruly caucus. Earlier this week, a rule to begin debate on multiple pieces of legislation looked poised to fail after five Republicans defected to vote “no.”

The Republicans included Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, who lost his primary to become the Republican nominee to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who lost his primary to become attorney general of Texas. Both of them are part of the unruly House Freedom Caucus alongside Chairman Rep. Andy Harris, who also voted “no.”

The rule only passed after two conservative Democrats–Reps. Marie Glusenkamp Perez of Washington and Jared Golden of Maine–broke with tradition to vote for the rule to allow for debate.

The House will be out of session next week for Labor Day and Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, before it returns the week after on Monday September 14. It will then break that Thursday and then be out of session for the final two weeks after the House had been scheduled to be in session.

Republicans have only 218 seats in the House while Democrats have 214, meaning they only need to flip four to earn a majority. A handful of Republicans will also head to Dallas during the interim period for Trump’s proposed midterm convention, wherein the president hopes to make the case for Republicans to defy history and stay in power.