With the partial government shutdown approaching the five-week mark, hundreds of thousands of workers are still furloughed. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Government Shutdown House GOP postpones annual retreat over shutdown

House GOP leaders have postponed plans for their annual retreat in West Virginia next week, signaling that the bitter funding stalemate could drag into its fifth week.

House Republicans had planned to head to White Sulphur Springs on Jan. 30, a day after the State of the Union address had been scheduled. That three-day jaunt will now be rescheduled, according to the Congressional Leadership Institute, which organizes the trip. A new date has not yet been set.


“Since the government is shut down, we and Republican Leadership agree that Members of Congress should be in Washington, DC, negotiating a path that gets our federal workforce back on the job,” Congressional Institute President Mark Strand wrote in a statement.

Some GOP lawmakers say privately they were worried about the optics of traveling to an upscale hotel and golf course in West Virginia as more than 800,000 federal workers go without pay.

