📝 The Readback: Empty House, silent Senate

IN THIS EDITION

The House’s unusually quiet shutdown

Explaining the relatively silent shutdown Senate

When it rains, it pours (and pours and pours)

Scrolling TikTok for work

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The House’s unusually quiet shutdown

Welcome to The Readback, our weekend digest featuring the best of Punchbowl News this week – a quick roundup of all our scoops, analysis and Capitol Hill insight you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve also included a few of our favorite outside reads from the week.

Empty House: It’s Day 11 of the government shutdown, and the House hasn’t been back in Washington since the funding lapse began.

That’s making it a somewhat weird shutdown here on the Hill.

Both Republicans and Democrats remain dug in on their positions, showing no signs they’ll break. The Trump administration began mass federal layoffs on Friday, escalating the situation and heaping more pressure on Democrats.

The Senate has been voting repeatedly on competing CR proposals to reopen the government. (More on that below.)

But the House isn’t in and hasn’t taken a single vote, making things eerily quieter than usual around here. Speaker Mike Johnson made this decision for a number of reasons. His position has been that House Republicans did their job, and now it’s on Senate Democrats to support the House-passed GOP CR.

But there’ve also been concerns from the House GOP leadership about members returning to Washington and derailing the messaging, which Republicans have felt good about so far. Well, in a taste of what that could look like, things got raucous this week. That was with just a small number of members roaming the Capitol hallways.

In one afternoon, Johnson clashed with Arizona Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, who were outside his offices protesting that Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) hasn’t been sworn in yet. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) confronted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, outside his news conference.

My colleague Ally Mutnick had a front row seat to both standoffs.

But otherwise, the House has settled into a shutdown routine. Johnson has held a news conference every day. Jeffries has convened his own pressers. Democrats tried unsuccessfully to get the GOP to recognize requests during pro forma sessions, including to push a military pay bill. And otherwise, the House remained largely quiet.

Still, House members are holding events back home, coordinating on conference calls and talking to reporters — waging a messaging war over the shutdown as it wears on and on.

Next week, House Democrats will be back in Washington to try to put Republicans in a tough spot with the House still in recess. So the hallways will be busier again starting Tuesday night.

What I’m watching: I’m a little behind, but I got sucked in once again to the new season of “Love Is Blind.” Very interested to see who makes it to the end.

– Laura Weiss

We’re excited to announce our first appearance and media partnership with D.C. Fintech Week, now known as Finchella. Join our policy team — Dave Clarke, Brendan Pedersen and Samantha Handler — on Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 9:30 a.m. ET for a special briefing.

To stay connected with us throughout the week and book an appointment to learn more about our financial services and technology newsletters, you can request a chat here: https://bmwiy.share.hsforms.com/2pGqFMQIwQ5umCtT-Qp8soQ

Explaining the relatively silent shutdown Senate

It’s Saturday. The Senate isn’t in town. But the government is still shut down with no end in sight.

For a brief moment on Thursday, there seemed like a possible exit strategy. Semafor reported that Senate Majority Leader John Thune was open to a plan that would promise Democrats a standalone vote on their top priority — extending expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies — in exchange for the minority party voting to open the government.

But the idea didn’t come to fruition, and Thune sent senators home for the weekend, telling them to come back on Tuesday. At that point, the shutdown will have lasted two weeks.

This shutdown has real-world effects. But I’ve been struck by how little urgency there seems to be to get out of the impasse in the Senate.

When we approached the funding deadline late last month, I girded myself for a nonstop stretch of staking out bipartisan meetings and weekends of scrambling around the Senate. But in reality, the Senate has taken a somewhat leisurely approach to the shutdown.

Of course, compared to the House’s absence — which Laura Weiss just broke down for you above — the Senate is working ten times as hard. But remove the other chamber’s delinquency and it’s remarkable that the Senate has basically only held votes on the GOP CR and the Democratic CR. That’s it. That’s the extent of the maneuvering to get out of this shutdown.

How did we get here? To understand that, you have to understand Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s stance. We sat down with Schumer on Wednesday and the New York Democrat told us that while Republicans believed Democrats would fold right away, the minority party was prepared to dig in.

Republicans quickly seized upon Schumer’s opening quote — “Every day gets better for us” — in floor speeches and public statements as an example of Democrats wishing for a long shutdown. The context of Schumer’s quote was about how Democrats have centered the shutdown fight around health care and had prepared “long in advance” to force Republicans on the issue of ACA tax credits.

Democrats are dug in, unwilling to vote to fund the government and convinced their stance is resonating with the American people.

Republicans are dug in, insistent that a clean continuing resolution is the only option to open government.

It’s the perfect recipe for a shutdown that has no discernible end in sight.

So why not send members home for a four-day weekend? It’s not like anything is changing when they’re in the Capitol together.

What I’m reading: I’ve been equally fascinated — and horrified — by the reporting of the arrest of the alleged arsonist from the Palisades fire last winter. I couldn’t stop reading the criminal complaint.

– Max Cohen

When it rains, it pours (and pours and pours)

The policy reporters of Washington have been having some version of the same conversation over and over again for the past week of the shutdown. Nothing is happening! Policy isn’t moving! We are bored!

Then, Thursday happened.

Before that, the policy beat was about as slow as you’d expect for a shutdown. It was a harsh adjustment after a year where congressional news had mostly resembled a firehose. News reporters get awful twitchy when there’s not much news to be had and daily deadlines loom.

At one point this week, I went about 48 hours without publishing a story with a lead byline. In any other journalism job, that is a pretty normal state of affairs. At Punchbowl News, I felt like I was about to lose my mind.

The dam broke on Thursday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent kicked things off at a conference where he said he wanted the Senate Banking Committee to hold a markup on federal deposit insurance. News! We had news! Blessed financial policy news!

I didn’t realize it, but the downpour had begun. A couple of sources flagged that a new draft of deposit insurance reform legislation had started circulating among staff. I obtained it and published it. Scoop! We also had some reporting about how top lawmakers had been working with the Treasury Department here. Scooplet!

That was midday. I was content. Then, I got a call from a lobbyist. Had I heard about some Democratic memo freaking people out downtown? Nope! But I’d look into it.

What followed was a frantic afternoon and a two-part crypto scoop. First, we published a Democratic document sent to Republicans with an initial policy offer on decentralized finance controls. We also scooped the immediate and not-so-great reaction from Republicans — halting the talks until the two sides agreed to a markup date. Drama! Peril! News, news, news!

Oh, and then the Senate’s annual defense authorization package moved forward. There were several financial policy amendments. Too much news! Too much news!!! But it was good to be back.

What I’m playing: It’s been a crazy time for the gamers in your life. We’ve had two major releases come out over the last month, and both are competing for my heart and limited freetime.

Silksong, a sequel to the beloved 2016 platformer Hollow Knight, was released Sept. 4. You’re a little bug fighting a lot of much larger, very deadly bugs. Hades 2 — a follow-up to one of my lockdown-era games — came out Sept. 25. There, you’re trying to save Olympus by fighting your way through the underworld and eventually kill your grandfather, Chronos, the Titan of time. (It’s lighter than it sounds.) Both games are fantastic! And I really wish they’d come out six months apart.

– Brendan Pedersen

Scrolling TikTok for work

I normally use TikTok to catch up on celebrity gossip and fall recipes. On Wednesday, though, I used my account to see which senators are attempting to go viral.

As the government shutdown wears on, more senators are using the social media platform to spread word on the latest progress, or lack thereof.

Many users, like me, noticed new videos from unexpected legislators across the board. Then, my colleagues received tips on how more and more lawmakers were trusting the platform and voicing their concerns on issues like the shutdown and President Donald Trump’s administration.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a seasoned TikTok user, is just one of the lawmakers embracing the platform as a communication tool.

I’ve done extensive research for other stories using Excel sheets or government documents. These research skills were put to the test, determining which lawmakers had TikTok accounts and whether they were authentic or fake.

It was the first time a job ever encouraged me to sit and scroll.

My little thumbs have never moved so fast. I was quick to note all of the new users among Senate Democrats: Patty Murray (Wash.), Adam Schiff (Calif.) and John Hickenlooper (Colo.). Oh my!

All these lawmakers voted in 2024 to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest from the app to avoid a ban on U.S. users. Their accounts were surprising. It was exciting and ironic to see on my screen.

These are some of the lawmakers who joined the app after Trump signed an executive order announcing a new deal for TikTok’s U.S. operations. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) actually joined TikTok the day of the deal announcement. Talk about staying up-to-date on the trends.

Some of the fake accounts included Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). With accounts like Murray’s not verified at the time and having smaller followings, it took more eyes than mine to confirm which accounts were frauds.

The TikTok deal has not been finalized. The app is also not allowed on government devices.

While I’m ready to keep politics off of my social media, it will certainly be interesting to see how lawmakers capitalize on the app if and when the TikTok deal is finalized.

What I’m watching: I finally caved and watched KPop Demon Hunters this week. Is it meant for kids? Yes. Will I be watching again? Absolutely.

– Hannah Campbell