Overview
- Democrats chastised Republicans for being out for roughly 53 days and demanded to know where they had been.
- Rep. Yassamin Ansari accused GOP members of taking a taxpayer-funded vacation, and Rep. Virginia Foxx responded that she worked every day.
- Speaker Mike Johnson had kept the House out of session after a short-term funding bill, saying members were doing meaningful work in their districts.
- Democrats said the extended recess meant no votes, committee meetings, or floor debate and little effort to negotiate reopening the government.
- The confrontation was recorded and widely shared, including C‑SPAN footage, as lawmakers reconvened to take up the Senate’s spending measure.