PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off next week for the holidays but back to our normal schedule on Tuesday, Jan. 2.

WHAT THOSE LAWMAKER EXITS MEAN (AND DON’T MEAN)

A single fact sums up the dire consequences of the House’s anarchic three weeks without a leader this fall: The last two people to wield the top gavel before Speaker Mike Johnson finally won it are now retiring.

It’s not just Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and former acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) retiring, though. Thirty other House members are heading for the exit.

The early wave of congressional departures is expected to crest again as the 2024 election gets closer. But it’s not a record-breaking number or retirements, or even a record-stretching one. The number of lawmakers bowing out is on the high side this cycle, but it follows a 20-year trend of earlier exits.

That means the colleagues who remain in office have to keep working to rebuild the loss of institutional knowledge that inevitably results from House retirements. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the Rules Committee chair and unofficial dean of the House GOP, spoke for many fellow lawmakers: “This happens every time,” he said of the new round of retirements.

But of course, this time is a little different. After a 117th Congress that began with an armed insurrection at their workplace, this year House members wrestled with a 15-ballot speakership slog in January followed by the October ouster of McCarthy and the chaos that followed. So lawmakers might be excused for assuring themselves that high turnover is normal, even healthy, given the constant challenge of governing in the social media era.

McCarthy and McHenry are especially “hard to replace,” Cole said. Underscoring his point: Half of the current House GOP conference had never served in the majority until this year. Which makes it hard to draw on lessons from the past.

And what an unsatisfying turn in the majority it has been for many Republicans — frustrated by their paltry margin of control, disunity within their ranks and a Democratic-controlled Senate where their legislation goes to die.

The House voted 724 times, according to the clerk, and only 27 proposals became law during 2023 — a remarkable portrait of dysfunction. Many members who are leaving blame that gridlock. Those staying put worry that the chaos may drive serious legislative minds right out of Congress and hinder recruitment of candidates with goals other than name recognition.

McHenry’s misery during his stint as speaker pro tempore was hard to miss; the firing of McCarthy forced him to preside over the grueling and divisive race to replace his friend. But his involuntary turn at the top wasn’t the only thing that pushed him to the exit.

The Financial Services Committee chair was set to hit the House GOP’s term limit for holding a committee gavel at the end of this Congress, meaning that McHenry would have likely ceded power over the panel if he chose reelection. Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who was in the same boat as Appropriations chair, will also retire next year.

House Republicans’ term limits have a double-edged sword effect, giving younger members opportunities (McHenry is only 48), but then leaving them adrift when they have to hang up the gavel.

Democrats have no such limits, creating an inverse dynamic. Their upward mobility on committees is stifled as chairs keep hanging on in office, enjoying the influence that a gavel provides. This cycle, Democrats count 12 relatively young members bailing out to run for higher office (compared with three Republicans leaving for that reason) — which partly explains why so many retirements are happening earlier this Congress.

McHenry maintained his happy-warrior attitude about the molting of House members, recalling robust mentorship when he arrived as the chamber’s then-youngest member and vowing to try to pass along all that he’s learned.

The House’s occasionally arcane and arduous rules are “not a bug” but “a feature,” he said. “My hope is that people develop a respect and love for the institution.”

Cole, who’s sticking around, took a more pragmatic view. Competency comes with time and experience, he acknowledged, and so turnover can make governing harder.

“You learn over time how to do this stuff,” he said of the nuts and bolts of legislating. Cole credited Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.), both veterans, for the “masterclass” they put on during this year’s politically volatile defense authorization bill debate.

“The fewer those kinds of people you have,” Cole warned, “the more difficult it becomes.”

— Katherine Tully-McManus

GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Friday, Dec. 22, where we’re wishing you a happy and healthy holiday and a happy new year. See you right back here for the rest of the 118th Congress.

ANOTHER 2024 DEADLINE TO WATCH …

Congress is already facing a packed first quarter of 2024, but one fight is flying under the radar: an early-February deadline for a gun regulation bill that could spark an intense debate.

Tucked into November’s two-part stopgap spending patch was a little-noticed provision that extended the Undetectable Firearms Act — which essentially bans manufacturing, selling or possessing guns that can’t be picked up by a metal detector — through Feb. 2. That is, of course, the same day the second tranche of government funding runs out.

Congressional leadership is already getting warnings from some law enforcement groups that, without an extension, “we risk putting the safety of the public at grave risk.” But lawmakers also have only a few options to attach a reauthorization of the law to next year before the deadline hits.

Getting a border security and foreign aid deal through the House, if one even materializes, will be tricky enough. And there’s no sign yet that Congress will meet either of its government funding deadlines.

Previewing the fight ahead, gun rights groups have already urged their allies to oppose a new reauthorization of the undetectable firearms law. One was initially included in the Senate’s defense policy bill last year before being removed in a final deal with the House.

– Jordain Carney

Lindsey Graham is vowing to introduce legislation blocking “federal funds from any city or state that requires” Chick-fil-A to remain open on Sundays.

Marjorie Taylor Greene says Matt Rosendale’s pursuit of support from Donald Trump is nauseating and says the potential Montana Senate candidate “can not be trusted.”

Lottttttta “Love Actually” memes going around this time of year — with a congressional twist.

Vern Buchanan and his wife have some very cute early Christmas presents.

Tim Kaine had a “wow” meta moment for the holidays.

Jon Ossoff offered praise from one Georgian who worried “we’re going to sic every old lady in Atlanta on him.”

If you’re desperate, the House and Senate gift shops have saved more than one staffer from showing up empty handed. (Do they still have the wooden toy versions of the Russell subway?)
QUICK LINKS

Kevin McCarthy: Still Running Interference for the GOP, from David Drucker in The Dispatch

Suozzi, running against an IDF veteran for Santos’ former seat, takes a weekend trip to Israel, from Jacob Kornbluh in Forward

TOMORROW IN CONGRESS

The House and Senate are out.

MONDAY AROUND THE HILL

‘Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the House (and Senate), not a creature was stirring, except for the mouse(s).

THURSDAY’S ANSWER: Florencio Briones answered correctly that Sen. George Murphy of California started the Senate’s “candy desk” tradition in 1965.

TODAY’S QUESTION: Which Civil War veteran, Medal of Honor recipient, and US Representative shot and killed someone in Lafayette Square, and what was his (original) legal defense?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle (which isn’t until Jan. 2). Send your answers to [email protected].

GET HUDDLE emailed to your phone each evening.

Follow Daniella on X at @DaniellaMicaela.