Impeachment articles filed against US Sec Def Hegseth

Speaker Mike Johnson is closing up the US House early, sending lawmakers home to campaign for the midterm elections after what he claims is the most productive Congress in decades.

But not without a scathing rebuke from Republican Thomas Massie for all the unfinished business.

Massie's resolution to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth over the war in Iran and his bipartisan effort to force the release of more files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation are all being left behind, blocked from votes.

"We're calling off Congress? And we're in the majority?" Massie railed from the House floor.

Massie, the renegade Republican from Kentucky, seized control of the chamber for a blistering hour-long speech criticising Johnson, the Republican majority and the work he said the speaker is refusing to conduct to lower prices for Americans and hold the Trump administration accountable.

"Why would we be cancelling days when the country is burning?" Massie said.

"We should stay here for every day that's on the calendar and we should debate."

The afternoon showdown provided a colourful capstone to what has been a tumultuous two-year session of House Republicans in control by a bare majority, with Johnson routinely struggling to keep the place running.

Despite the enormous tools of the gavel — the speaker holds one of the most powerful positions in Washington, second in the line of succession to the president — Johnson has often been thwarted by his own conference.

The speaker has repeatedly and abruptly cancelled House voting days to send lawmakers home rather than manage the disruptions from his own rebellious flank — particularly those legislative efforts that threatened to rebuke President Donald Trump.

By one tally, the House has cut 28 days this year, while adding four others, for a net loss of 24 days — about one-fourth of the total scheduled.

"Secretary Hegseth has done an extraordinary job at the Department of War," Johnson said.

Massie spent much of his floor speech assailing Johnson's leadership and decrying what he calls the "uniparty," which he characterises as moving in lockstep with big-money special interests at home and abroad.

He also devoted substantial time to criticising Hegseth and the "stupid war" he said the US should not be involved with in Iran. Deriding Hegseth's leadership, he mocked the secretary for trying to rename the Defence Department as the Department of War without consulting Congress.