House cuts week short, will leave DC on Wednesday

House GOP leaders have cut short the final legislative week before the midterm elections, announcing that lawmakers will leave Washington after Wednesday’s votes.

The announcement, from the office of Rep. Tom Emmer (Minn.), the GOP whip, shortens the week by a day. A vote scheduled for Thursday, related to California environmental rules, has been moved up to Wednesday.

The move not only allows lawmakers to head home early for the campaign trail, but it also means that lawmakers will not be forced to take a vote on impeaching Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth before the elections.

Sponsored by Rep. Tom Massie (R-Ky.), the eight impeachment articles accuse Hegseth of conducting an illegal war with Iran, because it lacks congressional approval, and killing suspected drug smugglers without judicial oversight, among other charges. Massie introduced the resolution on Tuesday as a privileged motion, which requires a floor vote within two legislative days, setting a deadline of Thursday had the chamber remained in session.

The next time the House will be back in session after Wednesday will be Nov. 9, following the midterm elections. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) earlier this month canceled the last two weeks of the September session, despite House Democrats urging him to keep the House in session to implement bipartisan AI safeguards.

Johnson had defended the abbreviated schedule on Tuesday, telling reporters that much of the legislative work is stalled in the Senate. The upper chamber has yet to pass a budget resolution for a third reconciliation package, legislation that would reauthorize food and agricultural programs for the next five years and a cryptocurrency regulation bill dubbed the Clarity Act – all major GOP priorities.

“Right now, it almost feels like a pointless exercise for us to continue sending and stacking legislation over there, when members could be in their districts campaigning in this very fateful moment,” Johnson said. “That’s a critically important thing.”

Johnson said that he’s sent every House member notice that if the Senate begins to move on legislation, he will bring “everybody back and we’ll get it all going.”