Diyar Guldogan
16 September 2026•Update: 16 September 2026
The US House of Representatives will wrap up its legislative business Wednesday and will no longer hold votes Thursday, Majority Whip Tom Emmer announced, abruptly changing the lower chamber’s previously announced schedule.
In a notice circulated to lawmakers, Emmer said the House is expected to consider a resolution providing for congressional disapproval of an Environmental Protection Agency rule concerning California’s nonroad engine pollution-control standards for commercial harbor craft.
The final votes for the week are expected at approximately 4.45 pm (2045GMT) Wednesday, according to the notice. The change comes after the chamber had previously been scheduled to hold votes Thursday.
The abbreviated schedule means lawmakers are expected to leave Washington Wednesday following the final votes. The next House session is not expected until Nov. 9, after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, according to the schedule provided to lawmakers.
The announcement comes one day after Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and sought to force a House vote on the resolution.
The resolution accuses Hegseth of violating congressional war-powers restrictions through US military operations in Iran, as well as alleged misconduct involving other military operations and the use of Pentagon authority.
Massie accused House leadership of abruptly ending the legislative session to prevent a vote on his effort to impeach Hegseth.
"And there it is. Just as I predicted. They’re canceling Congress tomorrow to avoid the vote on impeaching @SecWar," Massie wrote on US social media company X.
He also connected the shortened House schedule to a separate effort to force a vote on legislation requiring the release of records related to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"It will also make it harder for us to reach 218 signatures on the Epstein Discharge Petition before the election. We were at 190+ signatures last night," he added.
The timing of the schedule change immediately drew scrutiny from Democrats.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury said in a video statement that the decision to cancel Thursday's votes was connected to Massie's impeachment resolution. She argued that House Republican leaders were seeking to prevent a vote on whether to impeach Hegseth after Tuesday's House vote on a separate war powers resolution concerning the war with Iran.
"There's really only one explanation for why they would cancel votes tomorrow and send us home early before the midterms, and that's because they are afraid that the House of Representatives will vote to impeach Pete Hegseth, and the Speaker (Mike Johnson) obviously, and obviously the President (Donald Trump) does not want that, and so instead they're just going to send us home. That's it," said Stansbury.
