The federal government partially shut down this past week after most Senate Democrats refused to support a House-passed measure to keep everything funded at current Biden-era levels for a couple more months.

On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) revealed that the House would remain in recess over the coming week, unless and until enough Senate Democrats voted in favor of the bill to fully fund and reopen the government, according to the Washington Examiner.

Needless to say, House Democrats are enraged that they won't be in session next week, though their anger should be directed at their recalcitrant Democratic colleagues in the Senate -- specifically Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) -- rather than their GOP counterparts in the House, who already did their part to ensure the government stays up and running.

House will remain in recess

The House went into recess roughly two weeks ago after it successfully passed a continuing resolution to keep the government fully funded through November, and Speaker Johnson told reporters during a Friday press conference that, barring passage of the bill in the Senate, that recess would continue for at least another week.

"The House will come back into session and do its work as soon as Chuck Schumer allows us to reopen the government," Johnson said. "That’s plain and simple."

"The House did its job. The House sent a bipartisan, very simple, very conventional, 24-page continuing resolution to keep the lights on," he noted, according to Axios. "And it's been rejected by the Senate."

The outlet noted that the House had been scheduled to be in session from Tuesday to Friday next week, but those days have now been redesignated as a district work period, meaning members can remain in their home districts instead of coming to Washington, D.C., until the next session scheduled to begin on October 14.

No reason for the House to return right now

Politico reported that there appeared to be agreement among House Republicans with Speaker Johnson's stance to remain in recess while the Senate remains deadlocked over the House-passed bill, given that the GOP holds the leverage in the current situation, as expressed by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK).

"Why would we come back to just come back?" he asked rhetorically, as doing so would be akin to "negotiating against yourself." As for the absurdly partisan concessions Senate Democrats have demanded -- such as taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens -- Cole added, "Right now, we’re in a situation where, Democrats are trying to blackmail the Republicans into doing something they’re not prepared to do at this point."

The House remaining in recess for another week was also supported by Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), who argued that the return of congressmembers would just make the situation "worse," given that "You’ve got 435 members now all angry," and their coming back to D.C. would merely add "more fuel for the fire."

Democrats are furious

As noted, per the Examiner, House Democrats were infuriated by Speaker Johnson's decision, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), in a Friday press conference of his own, argued that "House Republicans continue to be on vacation spread out across the country and the world, and this makes no sense," as he also claimed that the GOP have "no interest in reopening" the government.

Democrats have also attempted to link the continued House recess to a purported GOP effort to avoid a forced vote on a bill to demand the release of the Epstein files, in that the recess allows the continued delay of the swearing-in of Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), who recently won a special election to fill her deceased father's seat and would be the final vote necessary on the Epstein files discharge petition.

According to Politico, Sen. Schumer asserted in his own Friday press conference, "Johnson and House Republicans care more about protecting the Epstein files than protecting the American people."

Meanwhile, according to The Hill, House Republicans held a conference call on Saturday in which Johnson urged unity among the GOP caucus and reiterated that the coming week's session was cancelled, though he left the door open to calling everyone back to D.C., with 48 hours notice, if the Senate struck a compromise deal that would require the concurrence of the House to reopen the government.