Speaker Mike Johnson‘s (R-LA) decision to keep the House out of session is starting to irritate some members of his own party, as the government shutdown enters its second week.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) expressed his frustration Wednesday with Johnson’s decision to keep the House in recess for a third week as an estimated 750,000 federal workers are furloughed and military members go unpaid.

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“No, what the House has done is pass a 7-week Continuing Resolution,” Kiley wrote on X. “The entire reason a CR is necessary is that Congress has not done its job in passing a timely budget. The Speaker shouldn’t even think about cancelling session for a third straight week.”

Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA), who has introduced legislation to ensure military personnel continue receiving pay despite the shutdown, urged Johnson and House leadership to “immediately pass” her bill, saying, “Military pay should not be held hostage due to Washington’s dysfunction!”

Kiggans’s comment came after Johnson ruled out bringing the lower chamber back into session to address pay for military members, who are slated to miss their first paychecks on Oct. 15.

Johnson repeatedly said that the “House did its job” when passing its patch to fund the government through November 21 back in September, as he sought to pressure Senate Democrats to advance the GOP bill.

But, one GOP aide told the Washington Examiner that they believe keeping the lower chamber home is doing more harm than good. Another senior GOP aide told the Washington Examiner last week that Johnson’s decision is “McConnell-esque,” referring to longtime former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The staffer went on to say that this tactic could be “brilliant” or “will hamstring us.” 

Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told Axios earlier this week that the House has “so much work to do. ” She followed up by asking why they are not coming back to the District and noting that it avoids the Epstein discharge petition led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA).

“We could be doing appropriations, passing important bills, and more,” Greene said.

Many Democrats, along with Massie, have begun alleging Johnson is delaying the swearing in of Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva and keeping the House in recess to avoid the discharge petition, which is one signature short of forcing a vote on the full release of the files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“Why are we in recess? Because the day we go back into session, I have 218 votes for the discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files,” Massie wrote in one post on X on Sunday. “@SpeakerJohnson doesn’t want that to be the news.”

However, Johnson has denied such claims and stated his intent to swear her in when the Senate passes government funding legislation. The federal government shut down last Wednesday after the Senate failed to pass a House GOP continuing resolution to fund the government through Nov. 21.

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The GOP short-term funding bill passed the House, but has failed six times in the Senate to reach the 60-vote threshold. Democrats have also put forth their own plan to keep the government open through Oct. 31 that includes various pet projects that Republicans oppose, including permanently extending expiring Obamacare tax credits, rolling back Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill, and restoring federal aid to NPR and PBS public radio and TV stations. The Senate has repeatedly rejected that proposal as well.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants to keep enough of his Democratic caucus in line to force Republicans to strike a deal that meets Democratic demands on healthcare. So far, only Sen. Angus King (I-ME) and two Democrats have backed the GOP plan.

Hailey Bullis contributed to this report.