Dozens of House Republicans Toured Edinburgh Castle While Government Shutdown Hit Day 47

The Photos

On April 1, 2026, TMZ published photographs showing Rep. John McGuire (R-VA), Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), and Rep. David Rouzer (R-NC) among a group of tourists outside Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. Semafor separately confirmed the same day that the group was affiliated with the House Main Street Caucus and included several dozen lawmakers.

Semafor identified additional members of the group as Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), Rep. Mike Flood (R-NE), Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY). Congress reporter Matt Fuller separately identified Reps. Greg Murphy (R-NC, 3rd district) and Bill Huizenga (R-MI, 4th district) as also being on the trip. Both Murphy and Huizenga are members of the Main Street Caucus.

The Context: Record-Setting Shutdown

The partial government shutdown — affecting the Department of Homeland Security while other agencies remained funded — passed its 44th day on the Sunday before the photos appeared, making it the longest partial shutdown in U.S. history at that point. By the time the images circulated on April 1, the shutdown had reached day 47.

The Senate had reached a bipartisan funding deal the prior week. House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected it, calling the Senate bill a "joke." The House then passed its own version before members departed Washington.

The shutdown has had direct operational impact on the Transportation Security Administration. TSA agents — who are federal employees — have been working without pay during the shutdown, creating significant staffing pressure and long lines at airport security checkpoints. The shutdown has also created broader chaos at airports.

Ethics Approval and the CODEL Question

A source told Semafor the trip was approved by the House Ethics Committee "months ago" and described it as focused on economic development, foreign partnerships, and business engagement. The Main Street Caucus describes itself on its website as a group of "pragmatic conservatives who get things done" and says it is "dedicated to strong, conservative principles related to economic, business, environmental, and national security policy."

The trip's structure — whether it constituted a formal Congressional Delegation (CODEL) or was organized differently — had not been definitively confirmed at time of publication. CODELs are typically paid for with taxpayer funds and often include Department of Defense aircraft. They are usually canceled during government shutdowns. If this trip operated as a CODEL, taxpayer money would have been involved; if it was privately funded, different rules apply. That distinction had not been publicly resolved as of April 1.

TMZ's two Capitol Hill sources suggested the congressmen were taking a standard tourist tour of the castle. Van Orden, reached by TMZ, told the outlet he was on the trip partly to celebrate his wife's positive health diagnosis following scheduled brain cyst surgery in January.

TMZ's Role and the Broader Pattern

The images emerged because TMZ had explicitly tasked its network of tipsters with tracking down photos of lawmakers on vacation during the shutdown. The outlet posted publicly on social media: "TMZ is on the hunt for photos of politicians on vacay as TSA officers suffer!" before publishing the Edinburgh Castle photos.

The same effort produced other images. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was photographed at Walt Disney World in Florida — carrying what TMZ described as a Little Mermaid-themed bubble wand, and photographed at Chef Mickey's and in line for the Space Mountain roller coaster. Graham said he had met with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff about Middle East peace negotiations before attending the park.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was photographed at Fort Lauderdale airport. Cruz has previously come under scrutiny for traveling during a constituent crisis — in 2021, he flew to Cancun while a historic winter storm knocked out power across Texas.

Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) was photographed at a bar in Las Vegas, where he said he was visiting his father. Garcia said he had no objection to TMZ's coverage, posting publicly: "Speaker Mike Johnson should have never sent us all home."

What's Funded, What Isn't

The shutdown affecting DHS has kept the department — including TSA, Customs and Border Protection, and parts of FEMA — without full appropriations. ICE and CBP were specifically carved out from the Senate's bipartisan proposal, which Johnson rejected. Federal employees in affected agencies either work without pay, face furlough, or are working under emergency designations depending on their function.

Edinburgh Castle is described by Visit Scotland as one of the most popular tourist destinations in Scotland, receiving hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The 11th-century fortress sits atop an extinct volcano in the center of the Scottish capital.