The refusal of Speaker Mike Johnson to reconvene the House of Representatives during a protracted government shutdown is more than an exercise in partisan strategy—it is a dereliction of duty that undermines the very idea of representative government. With the chamber kept in recess, Johnson has effectively abandoned his most basic obligation: to convene the legislative branch, allow sworn members their seats, and enable Congress to act. The most egregious example of this malaise is his decision to withhold the oath of office from a duly elected member of Congress, a move that places politics ahead of people and power ahead of process.
House members have been unable to vote on critical legislation for weeks as the government remains shuttered. While the Speaker’s argument is that the House has no business meeting until the Senate acts and until certain political demands are met, that rationale flies in the face of how the chamber has historically operated—even during past shutdowns. The legislative calendar should not be hostage to procedural brinkmanship or strategic delays. Instead, the House should be functioning: debating, negotiating, voting and, importantly, swearing in the people’s duly elected representatives.
One such representative, elected in a special Arizona race to succeed her father, remains unsworn despite winning the seat weeks ago. Instead of taking the oath, Adelita Orijalva remains idle while constituents wait for representation. This isn’t simply an inconvenience—it is a constitutional violation of the principle of no taxation without representation and a disgrace to the institutional mission of the House. By conditioning her swearing-in on the reopening of government or on political concessions he cannot credibly link, Johnson is weaponizing the rules to deny a district its voice and deny Congress its full membership.
Even more disturbing is the broader context: the same delay is being used to hold up a pending petition that would force a vote on releasing files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The sixty-odd Democrats and a handful of Republicans who have already signed the petition need that final signature to hit the 218 mark. That signature is tied to the new member in Arizona, and Johnson’s decision to hold off the swearing-in becomes not a procedural matter but a political barricade to oversight. He claims the delay has nothing to do with those files, yet the timing and linkage to legislative shutdown politics make that claim difficult to believe.
The result is a triple failure. First, Johnson has failed the American people by denying the House its full functionality, choosing to idle rather than legislate. Second, he has failed a district by keeping its representative-elect structurally powerless and disenfranchised. Third, he has failed the norms of oversight and accountability by using his office to block a vote tied to transparency and public interest. Speaker Johnson may believe he is executing a high-stakes negotiation tactic—but in practice he is sidelining democracy.
The argument that the House should wait for the Senate or the White House to agree before returning to session is hollow. The House could meet, vote and act even if the Senate stalls. Historically, chambers have remained operational in similar emergencies. Instead, Johnson is shaping the narrative: he holds the keys, he dictates the schedule, and he uses absence as leverage. But when absence replaces action, leadership becomes abdication.
American democracy does not flourish when Congress is silent, unavailable and stalled. It fails when methodical obstruction supplants meaningful debate, when procedure becomes a tool for delay rather than a mechanism for service. The Speaker’s office is not a vantage point from which to wait out the opposition—it is an active role meant to convene, coordinate and carry forward the will of the people.
Speaker Johnson must abandon the tactic of recess as negotiation. He must bring the House back, swear in the member from Arizona, allow the vote on the Epstein-related petition, and do the work the American people elected this institution to perform. Anything less is betrayal of his office, betrayal of the people, and betrayal of democracy itself.