Mike Johnson says the House won’t meet for another week — a reminder this dysfunction is anything but normal.

Question

Saw that Mike Johnson said the House is not going to be in session for another damn week. Posting this again to remind folks none of this normal.

Answer 1

I find the claim that Mike Johnson mentioning the House won’t meet for another week to be true. He explicitly mentions the ‘district work period’ which means the House is not meeting (Congressional Record). During this period they return to their home state and hear the concerns of their constituents. As you mentioned, this is not normal. According to The Washington Post, “The House has historically continued meeting during a shutdown”. Before the start of the fiscal year, Congress typically passes the 12 appropriations bills or a temporary continuing resolution that continues pre-existing appropriations that allows federal funding to continue being used (Congress.gov). However, the Senate did not agree to the CR (continuing resolution) proposed by the House, which has led to a “stalemate” (AP News). Under the Anti-Deficiency Act, this prohibits government agencies from spending any type of money that is not in the budget or accounted for (GAO.gov). Given that there is no budget passed, this has led to the “shutdown.” In precedents, the House has not shut down, and still continued to meet. So yes, what is happening in Congress is atypical and not exactly productively working toward a solution and compromise.

Additionally, the chart that is pictured in the BlueSky post you linked, shows that in the 1970s more than 700 bills were being enacted, and that number fell drastically down to 274 in 2023. However, I was not able to find the exact page on Statista.com and verify their methodology. Despite this, reliable sources like Axios and Reuters have cited significant decline in bills passed by Congress. While precise numbers may vary, Congress is passing fewer bills than it did decades ago, and the claim the chart makes does appear to be relatively valid.

Answer 2

Yes, it is true that the House is not meeting this week (Monday, Oct. 27-Sunday, Nov. 2). This is due to a District Work Period declared by Speaker Mike Johnson, which is typically a time for representatives to meet with their constituents and host town halls, among other things.

My first source is from the Oct. 24th Floor Summary of the House's Clerk office, which summarized the events of the meeting that day, including Speaker Mike Johnson's designation of a work period for the house to proceed from Oct. 27-Nov. 2. This was also corroborated by the House of Representatives 2025 Calendar publically available under "Press Gallery." To find a definition for "Designated Work Period," I sourced my information from an article written for the American Enterprise Institute, a non-partisan political think tank.

Source 1: https://clerk.house.gov/FloorSummary

Source 2: https://pressgallery.house.gov/schedules/2025-house-calendar

Source 3: https://www.aei.org/op-eds/congress-in-plain-english-why-does-congress-take-a-summer-break/

My first two sources are unbiased because they are coming straight from the governmental body being referenced, and are updated regularly despite the government shutdown.  The third might be a bit biased, but the AEI are very transparent about their goals and affiliations and it is very easy to see their non-partisanship.

Well, the House is not meeting this week, and two sources directly from the House have confirmed this. However, this claim is a bit misleading. This claim is missing valuable information that Speaker Mike Johnson has designated this week as a work period, and what that means for Congress. As well, the post originally claiming this information is from an unreputable Bluesky user, and the information they cite is not available to be found on the website they're pulling from. Additionally, that information is citing bills passed by the House in 2025, not talking about how many times they've met or not.

Answer 3

Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, stated the House of Representatives will not be meeting until November 2nd, or longer. He designates this to be from Monday, October 27-November 2nd. He called this the "District work period".(Congressional Record). During this time, Representatives will return to their home state and meet with their constituents.  This writer's claims in both instances are completely true, as this is not a normal democracy or government operating to a full shutdown. Additionally, the house has in the past continued to meet during a government shutdown. 

Answer 4

Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, stated the House of Representatives will not be meeting until November 2nd, or longer. He designates this to be from Monday, October 27-November 2nd. He called this the "District work period". Cited the Congressional Record. During this time, representatives will go back to their home state and meet with their constituents. This writer's claims in both instances are completely true, as this is not a normal democracy or government operating under a full shutdown. Additionally, the house has, in the past, continued to meet during a government shutdown.