The House calendar remained officially stuck on October 3 – Tuesday – the date when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted and left the chamber without adjourning. The interim speaker eventually managed to adjourn the chamber at 3:25 p.m. on Wednesday, but the day of inaction still spoke volumes. “The House of Representatives is effectively frozen,” Rep. Garret Graves, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters. “We are not able to actually advance legislation.
Government funding is set to expire on November 17 and the parties are nowhere near an agreement on spending. Members and aides alike question how they’ll avert a government shutdown when there is so much uncertainty about the basic rules of House operation. Amid the confusion, many committee meetings got canceled for the remainder of the week. Some members huddled in their offices, trying to figure out what comes next, while others booked last-minute flights out of town.