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Republicans to Play Pickleball While Nation Grinds to a Halt

As shutdown looms, Republicans are signing for a luxury five-star Georgia resort.

Senate Republicans plan to hit the courts and the course during a luxury getaway as a government shutdown threatens to bring the nation to a halt.

If the ongoing standoff over a resolution to keep the government funded and running is not fixed by the end of Tuesday, some non-essential federal work would halt and essential staff—from TSA to troops—would work without pay.

However, that does not appear to have prevented the National Republican Senatorial Committee from arranging its “2025 NRSC Fall Meeting” at a five-star hotel this weekend.

An invitation for the Oct. 3–5 getaway at the Sea Island resort in Georgia, obtained by Politico, promises guests a mix of work with a lot of play.

The invite reveals there will be a Friday welcome dinner, a Saturday “General Session,” alongside nightly drinks receptions—plus an afternoon filled with golf, pickleball, fishing, shooting, and lawn games.

The property also features a spa, as well as three championship golf courses.

After the NRSC failed to respond to a request for comment, the Daily Beast has also asked whether the event will proceed if the government shuts down.

Politico’s revelation follows an earlier story, which reported Democrats were also planning their own “Tuscan-European vibe” spa retreat in California’s Napa Valley, on Oct. 13 and 14, which could represent day 12 of a shutdown.

The lavish potential trips come as President Donald Trump and GOP leaders escalate a hardball shutdown standoff with Democrats.

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A shutdown generally shutters “non-essential” government functions. Pay stops for many federal workers, and this time the Trump administration has ordered agencies to draft plans for permanent layoffs.

The 35-day shutdown in December 2018–January 2019, during the first Trump presidency, cost the government $5 billion and furloughed 380,000 employees.

House Republicans want a seven-week patch to Nov. 21, while Senate Democrats are pushing an Oct. 31 bridge tied to health-care demands.

The White House has told agencies to draft reduction-in-force plans.

On NBC’s Meet the Press, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said mass federal firings floated by the White House “don’t have to happen,” but the administration has signaled it’s prepared to fire workers in a shutdown rather than follow traditional furloughs.

White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast that the Democrats’ “radical agenda was rejected by the American people less than a year ago at the ballot box, now they’re trying to shut down the government and hold the American people hostage over it.”

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Tom LatchemLead Global Correspondent

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