The wheels are coming off the House Republican Conference.
In a week that was supposed to set the tone for a furious period of election-year legislating, Speaker Mike Johnson’s House GOP majority is once again the epitome of discord and dysfunction.
It’s not really clear how House Republicans will get through the next few days. Johnson’s leadership team may lose yet another big rule vote. There’s constant grumbling inside House Republican leadership circles as people snipe at one another. Senate Republicans are furious with their House GOP counterparts. The White House seems fed up with the chaotic House GOP conference too. Plus, the stakes couldn’t be higher, politically and policy-wise.
After a Rules Committee hearing that stretched from Monday to Tuesday, House GOP leadership plans to go to the floor today with a blueprint for debating several key bills. These include a FISA Section 702 renewal; a farm bill; legislation allowing the year-round sale of E15 ethanol fuel; and a budget resolution to fund ICE and Border Patrol.
But that GOP-drafted rule looks destined to fail, another potentially devastating misstep for Johnson and his top lieutenants.
And then what? Will Johnson keep the House in over the weekend? Will Johnson cancel the upcoming week-long May recess? Will Johnson have to punt to the Senate to ensure that the nation’s most critical foreign surveillance program doesn’t expire?
House Republicans want to portray themselves as the “grownups” in Washington ahead of what’s expected to be a difficult midterm election. But at this point, they look like amateurs — and their majority is in deep trouble.
The legislative morass. Despite months of internal discussions, House Republicans can’t agree among themselves about how to move forward on extending FISA Section 702, a critical surveillance authority that expires Thursday. Johnson has given his conservatives everything they’ve wanted on FISA except one provision — mandating judicial warrants for any Section 702 inquiry involving a U.S. person. Johnson won’t cave, and neither will conservatives, leading to massive confusion over what’s happening with the program.
Even more importantly, the White House sent Capitol Hill a memo Tuesday night basically ordering House Republicans to move forward with a Department of Homeland Security funding bill already passed by the Senate.
OMB officials said that without that bill, they won’t be able to pay 270,000 DHS employees next month. DHS has been shut down for 74 days now in a dispute with Democrats over ICE reforms, and its employees are getting paid under two executive orders from President Donald Trump. Remember — this is FY2026 funding we’re talking about, and it’s nearly seven months into the fiscal year.
The minority rules. Once again, Democrats are making the most out of the GOP’s mess. House Rules Committee Democrats inflicted hours of pain during Tuesday’s session, offering dozens of amendments during the markup from rank-and-file Republicans one by one. This forced the GOP majority to vote against their colleagues’ proposals.
Democrats were looking to secure defections on the rule that will theoretically be on the floor this morning. They succeeded with at least two: Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said they’d oppose the rule after their amendments got rejected. Democrats made direct pleas to try to peel off others.
“This is chaos, it’s incompetence, amateur hour,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Rules Committee, said of the “shitty” GOP leadership. “This is not a normal process. This is dysfunctional,” McGovern added.
Exiting the hearing Tuesday night, Republicans were openly skeptical about whether the rule they just approved could clear the floor.
“I think you still have FISA problems. I don’t think it has the warrant protections it needs. CBDC is going to be stripped out in the Senate,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said of the ban on a central bank digital currency.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) added that it’s up to Johnson “to get the vote count.”
“We’ll see if he’s got it,” Norman quipped.
Tensions rising. Johnson’s inability to pass just about anything is intensifying frustration among Senate Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune was uncharacteristically blunt Tuesday night about House GOP leaders’ attempt to send the Senate a FISA extension that includes a ban on a central bank digital currency, calling it “dead on arrival.”
“They know that,” Thune added. Those comments immediately angered House GOP hardliners.
Thune then told reporters that he’s been open to discussing a House-requested “technical fix” to the Senate’s bipartisan bill funding DHS. “But I think the thing to do is just to pass the [Senate-approved] bill,” Thune said.
The South Dakota Republican is rarely willing to tell the House what to do. But Johnson’s decision to hold off on passing the bipartisan DHS bill for 28 days — under immense pressure from his members — is clearly striking a nerve with Thune.
Senate GOP leaders are still trying to give the House space to work out a path on FISA but don’t feel they can wait much longer. The Section 702 authority expires Thursday. That means the Senate will need unanimous consent to speed up passage and meet the deadline no matter what.
Depending on what happens in the House, the Senate could hold a procedural vote on a FISA extension this afternoon. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is working on a bill that would extend FISA for three years with some reforms.
Also … News: Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) have a new resolution condemning Hasan Piker and Candace Owens for “antisemitic hate-filled rhetoric.” If this ever makes it to the House floor, it would be quite the vote.
