‘Massive mess’ forces House GOP to entertain wild fix: 'Is this a joke?'

The U.S. House is facing a "massive mess” as a string of absentees and revolting Republicans threaten to send the chamber’s legislative agenda up in smoke, Punchbowl News reported Tuesday.

With just over two months until the midterms, the House is scheduled to remain in session until Thursday before recessing until Sept. 14, and will be out for nearly all of October. And yet, even with “a lot” of bills still on Republicans’ priority list, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Punchbowl News, inner-party divisions and absentees have risked “torching this week’s legislative agenda.”

“The House Republican Conference is split. Even keeping the lights on is a challenge most days," Punchbowl News’ report reads. “There are GOP attendance problems too. Twenty-one lawmakers in each party didn’t show up to vote Monday night.”

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), for instance, told Punchbowl News that he was already itching to leave Washington, D.C.

“It’s up to the speaker, but I’ve always said the work we do at home is more important than the work we do here,” Hudson said.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) was frustrated over a stopgap funding bill poised to be voted on later on Tuesday — a bill designed to avert another government shutdown at the end of this month — due to its inclusion of a “delay on the ban on hemp products.” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) had his own “issue” with the stopgap funding bill in that it was being considered on suspension, a procedure in which no floor amendments are permitted.

The congressional gridlock has been so severe that Republican leaders have yet to commit as to whether the House should even bother staying in session for the duration of September, a proposition that dumbfounded Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman and Em Luetkemeyer.

“Is this a joke? Cancel the rest of September? Come on,” Sherman and Luetkemeyer wrote. “Surely there’s something Republicans can do to help their prospects in November. Gas prices and costs are stubbornly high. The United States is at war with Iran across the Middle East. Clashes over immigration and ICE, data centers and Flock cameras are dominating headlines back home.”