The House is on track to work one of its lightest non-election years in decades.

• Lawmakers have met and voted just 87 days so far in 2025 — fewer than every other non-election year over the last two decades except 2021.

Why it matters: Speaker Mike Johnson has turned distance into a governing tool, keeping lawmakers out of D.C. when tensions flare or policy stalls.

• Johnson has seized control of the GOP's message, holding daily press conferences since the shutdown began (except for today), while rabble-rousing lawmakers are off the Hill and away from the cameras.
• Earlier this month, he told reporters that it's better for lawmakers to be "physically separated right now" after several partisan clashes erupted on Capitol Hill.
• A handful of Republicans have grumbled about being sidelined during a crisis. But most of the conference remains publicly supportive of the approach.

Between the lines: Johnson cut the session short before the August recess over the Epstein files.

• In July, he froze action on the floor for a record-breaking period when legislation didn't go his way.
• In April, he sent the House home for the week after members defied him on proxy voting.

By the numbers: On average, the House has logged 104 voting days by late October in off years — 17 more than this year's total.

• If the shutdown stretches through Thanksgiving, and lawmakers don't return until December, the House would end 2025 with just 99 voting days — the fewest in two decades.
• Even if the House were to return next week and stick with the rest of the year's calendar, it would hit only 111 voting days.

Yes, but: Most House Republicans insist the "district work period" means they're still at work.

• "Dozens of Republicans are back home, cleaning up parks, volunteering at food banks and helping struggling families," House Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) said yesterday.
• "This is not what I call a vacation. If [senators] think showing up once a day and casting one vote is work, they need to come over to the House side and see what we're doing," Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said Tuesday.
• Johnson has repeatedly said that the House "has done its job" by passing a clean government funding measure.

The bottom line: "People run for Congress in order to be able to, you know, come to the Capitol and legislate, and they're not able to do their jobs in that sense right now," Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) told us in the Capitol last week.

• "When you tell people 'Sorry, you're just kind of not allowed to come to serve in Washington, D.C., as a legislator, as you are elected to, indefinitely,' obviously, that's going to frustrate people," he added.
• "We should be in session, in the House, having these conversations, because on Nov. 1, open enrollment happens, and nothing has been done." Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told us in an interview last week, referencing the expiring ACA subsidies.

— Kate Santaliz

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries endorsed Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor today, just ahead of early voting that begins tomorrow.

Why it matters: Several New York House Democrats pointedly declared that they won't endorse Mamdani because of his left-wing policy positions.

• But some of Jeffries' progressive members have privately grumbled over the slow endorsement. Several Democratic candidates even cited it as their reason for not supporting him as leader.
• Jeffries, in a statement to the New York Times, said that although the two have "areas of principled disagreement," Mamdani won "a free and fair election" to become the Democratic nominee.

Go deeper: Jeffries also shrugged off Axios' earlier reporting that New York City Council member Chi Ossé is considering a primary challenge against him. (Ossé told Axios he isn't running.)

• "If you ask me a serious question, I'll give you a serious answer," Jeffries told us today.

— Andrew Solender

Move over, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.): Republicans have found their bogeyman for 2026.

Why it matters: They are convinced that Mamdani's high name ID will make it easier to link a democratic socialist in New York to Democratic congressional candidates in battleground districts across the country.

• Republicans have been preparing for Jeffries to endorse Mamdani for months.
• In late July, they conducted a battleground poll of 1,000 respondents in 46 congressional districts to get a baseline reading on Mamdani's popularity.
• Their survey showed that Mamdani had an 81% name ID with a 25% favorability rating and 41% unfavorable.

What they're saying: "Hakeem Jeffries just endorsed the socialist takeover of his own party," said Will Kiley, the NRCC communications director.

— Hans Nichols

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is hosting a D.C. fundraiser for former Sen. John Sununu's comeback bid in New Hampshire.

Why it matters: NRSC Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) welcomed Sununu's announcement this week, saying his committee was "all-in" for Sununu.

• Now he's putting the full institutional weight of the Senate GOP fundraising apparatus behind him.

The intrigue: There's also another former Republican senator in the race: Scott Brown, who won an upset victory in 2010 in neighboring Massachusetts.

Zoom in: The Nov. 19 fundraising dinner, with a reception beforehand, will accept donations from PACs and individuals.

• To co-chair the event, a PAC will need to contribute $10,000. For an individual, it costs $7,000.
• The lowest level of donation is $2,500 for a PAC and $1,000 for an individual.

The other side: Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) raised $1.8 million in the third quarter, leaving him with $2.6 million cash on hand.

• Brown, who served as Trump's ambassador to New Zealand in his first term, raised $1.2 million in the third quarter from all his accounts, according to Fox News. He had $900,000 cash on hand at the beginning of the month.

— Hans Nichols