House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated this week that he would debate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries after the government shutdown ended.

After previously telling CSPAN that he'd be happy to debate Jeffries on the network, he subsequently told Fox News that he'd do so "as soon as we get the government open."

Jeffries, for his part, accepted Johnson's debate offer the same week, insisting to reporters that he would work with Johnson to get such a showdown scheduled amid the shutdown.

Congress on Thursday voted down a resolution to fund the government for the tenth time and the shutdown itself shows no signs of ending in the near future.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.