Each day on Capitol Hill for the last 16 days is the same: a press conference (or five), lawmaker demonstrations, partisan fights, rinse, repeat. And the phrase “same s***, different day” is becoming a reality as staffers and lawmakers don’t see an end to the government shutdown in sight.
Both House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) come to work every day with the same message, aiming to cast the blame for the government shutdown on each other.
“Welcome everybody,” Johnson said as he greeted reporters on Wednesday. “We’re on day 15 of the Democrat government shutdown.”
“This is day 15 of the Trump Republican shutdown,” Jeffries said in the same room hours later.
As the shutdown enters its third week, with no agreement on a funding deal and negotiations stalled, lawmakers are expected to continue focusing on messaging.
Johnson has reiterated to reporters that this is how the day-to-day will be until “Chuck Schumer ends the shutdown,” giving no indication that he will bring the House back from recess any time soon. Jeffries has said repeatedly that Democrats will “sit down with anyone, any time, any place” to reach a deal.
Press conferences have become routine for the leaders, some holding two to three a day. Republicans are using the conferences and additional press calls to show that their party is united, having centrist lawmakers speak one day and then more conservative fiscal hawks the next. Democrats are using their conferences and steering committee hearings to highlight doctors and other professionals, as well as emphasize their point that this fight is about healthcare.
Is this onslaught of messaging and mudslinging working? It’s hard to say. Some polls show voters are placing the blame on everyone: the Republicans, the Democrats, and the president. Others show Americans are more likely to blame the GOP for the shutdown, but the gap is narrowing as it drags on, and no party, Democrat or Republican, seems to have an answer.
“I’m frustrated because I thought we could come together and figure this out by now,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) said.
He believed Republicans would keep the House open so they could move forward with negotiations on how to extend the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies while the Senate handled the continuing resolution.
However, Johnson, who repeatedly tells reporters the House “did its job” when asked about possible changes to the continuing resolution, has advised his members to stay home as the House remains in recess for the fourth straight week.
“I think if they just show up, we can figure this out,” Subramanyam said. “But I’m surprised they haven’t even made the effort.”
Unlike in March, the Democratic caucus in the House and Senate has managed to remain in lockstep. But as Groundhog Day continues, it is clear that Republicans are starting to grow restless.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) has openly criticized the speaker for keeping lawmakers at home in their districts, insisting it’s the “wrong decision,” and he has had many conversations with Democrats on Capitol Hill, the Washington Examiner learned.
Several House Republicans called on Johnson to bring the House back to vote on a stand-alone bill to fund the military, though those voices grew quiet after the White House found a back channel to pay the troops during the shutdown. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has become an unexpected advocate of addressing the ACA tax credits, repeatedly knocking GOP leadership for taking no initiative to stop healthcare costs from inevitably rising.
Some Republican members have begun making their way to Washington. When the Washington Examiner asked Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) about the daily press conferences, he joked, “I wasn’t invited, I could probably get more views than they do.”
Grijalva trapped in the waiting place
Press conferences are not the only recurring agenda item on Capitol Hill amid the government shutdown. House Democrats have remained on the Hill, where they have continuously demanded the swearing in of Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, who won her special election in Arizona last month.
Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) demanded for a second time that Grijalva be sworn in during a pro-forma session in the House on Tuesday, as Democrats have been doing since the shutdown began.
“American people are learning more about this, this injustice, the pressure is building on the speaker to do the obvious and right thing, and that is to swear at a member,” Stanton said.
“His shifting answers as to why he’s not swearing or in is getting to be more ridiculous by the day,” he continued.
Grijalva herself has expressed frustration at the fact that she continues to ask to be sworn in and cannot do the work of her constituents. Her days of repeatedly asking to become an official member of the House were shaken up when she finally received her House office keys on Tuesday. But, she said, the phone lines don’t work, and there is no internet.
Staffer fatigue sets in
Capitol Hill staffers are also feeling the weight of a shutdown. Those deemed essential are expected to work without pay, and for many, that’s not ideal for a lifestyle in a city with high prices and apartment buildings that won’t accept a government shutdown as a reason for not paying rent.
Several House staffers told the Washington Examiner that they are feeling the fatigue set in as Congress likely eyes a fifth straight week in recess beginning next week.
“What’s been weighing on me is thinking about my friends and federal workers who are living paycheck to paycheck,” said a House Democratic staffer, granted anonymity to speak freely. “With how expensive everything’s gotten, it’s really tough out there.”
“It is for sure starting to feel like the same standoffs, the same talking points,” the staffer added. “We’re all tired, but mostly I’m just frustrated that people are hurting while this drags on. I feel like I’ve been working nonstop, but I do think the ACA cuts would do serious damage, so it’s time for Johnson to bring the House back.”
House Republican staffers agree they are feeling the frustration of a shutdown, but one told the Washington Examiner they were pleasantly surprised by the unity the caucus has shown. The Freedom Caucus, usually a thorn in Johnson’s side, has held two press calls, insisting it is “100%” behind the speaker on the government funding issue.
“Yeah, we are all annoyed there is no ‘normalcy’ and it is the same talking points every day, but this is also the most unified I’ve seen our party since I started my political career in 2016,” a senior GOP staffer said. “That is the light at the end of the tunnel for me.”
“It also means our parties are further apart than ever before, and just thinking about how this solution is figured out is frustration-inducing,” the GOP staffer added. “I’ve stopped listening to pressers because I know no new news is going to come out of them.”
But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle insist the multiple press conferences are important to hammer home to the American people the issues happening in Washington. Johnson has said he will continue to hold press conferences daily to highlight the Democrats’ CR proposal and refusal to vote for the GOP CR, which has failed in the Senate nine times.
“I understand that, having these press conferences, you wonder, is anyone paying attention? Is anyone getting through? But the thing that I’m grateful for is we keep highlighting the stories of regular people,” Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) said of Jeffries’s and Democrats’ press strategy.
“What’s hard about politics right now is you have to continue to hit the same beat over and over again to get through,” Balint added.
JOHNSON TURNS UP VOLUME ON DEMOCRATS IN SHUTDOWN STANDOFF, TELLING THEM TO ‘BRING IT’
She said the benefit of these run-of-the-mill, repeated press conferences is that they show a split screen between the “chaos” coming from the Trump administration and a promise of consistency from Democrats.
“So it does have a little bit of a Groundhog Day quality,” she said. “But those of us who serve in Congress on the Democratic side that are here this week, even though Republicans are not here, we never signed up for it because we thought it would be glamorous. … It’s drudgery, but you do it because you believe in the mission.”