Votes stretching for hours. Spirited confrontations on the House floor. Rowdy committee hearings.
It was, in many respects, a chaotic week in the U.S. House of Representatives, as Republicans set out to tackle a number of key priorities that exposed deep divisions within their conference.
Last week, Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, warned reporters they’d be entering “hell week” come Monday. His prediction rang true.
“What did I tell you all last week when we were here?” Nehls told reporters on Wednesday, standing on the Capitol steps with his signature cigar in hand. “Somebody asked me and I said next week was gonna be hell week.”
“Well, we’re experiencing what hell week looks like,” he said. “We can’t really agree on much of anything.”
On that point, Nehls wasn’t as prophetic.
In the end, Republicans muscled through their to-do list, temporarily extending the U.S.’ warrantless spying powers, approving a budget blueprint for their multi-billion dollar immigration enforcement package, and passing a sprawling farm bill. The House even passed a bill to re-open the Department of Homeland Security, finally ending a historic 76-day shutdown.
But at no point did Republicans make it look easy.
The GOP’s narrow legislative accomplishments didn’t come together without a fair share of drama — a reality that’s fueling frustrations in the House GOP ranks, with some members directing their ire squarely at Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
“It’s just been a mess,” one House Republican, who requested anonymity to discuss the internal dynamics, told MS NOW. “We haven’t really had any guidance or direction. We’re moving from one fire drill to the next every single week, and then half the time it feels like, why are we even here?”
The GOP lawmaker continued that, while there’s “a lot of blame to go around,” Johnson deserves his fair share of it.
Asked if there are conversations behind the scenes about the House GOP’s future leadership, the lawmaker said: “They’re kind of beginning.”
Another House Republican didn’t hold back.
“Johnson’s appeasement to everyone across the conference has led us to a place of dysfunction,” Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, a second-term congressman who served in the first Trump administration, told MS NOW. “We are doing what is best for the country in the short-term, but damaging it for the long-term by breaking precedent after precedent.”
Miller added that Johnson is a “good man.”
“But you can’t run an organization this way,” he said.
Miller, who has lobbed criticism at Johnson in the past, said if Trump weren’t in the White House, the speaker would’ve lost his gavel a while ago.
“If it wasn’t for the administration, the speaker would have been vacated several months ago,” Miller said, referring to the motion-to-vacate mechanism to remove the speaker.
Of course, much of the consternation is due to a narrow and ideologically diverse conference. On a party line vote — assuming full attendance and Independent Rep. Kevin Kiley of California siding with the GOP — Republicans can only afford to lose two lawmakers.
“You’ve got a very diverse conference, you got a two-vote majority,” Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., said. “So it’s very difficult to get the votes across the line.”
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo, echoed that sentiment, telling reporters that the GOP is “not a party of people that just check our voting cards in.”
“We’re not a party that just does whatever leadership tells us to do,” he said. “And I think that that’s a good thing, like, the process should work that way.”
While Burlison may be giving his colleagues slightly too much credit — Republicans have repeatedly folded over the last 16 months when Trump and GOP leaders have pressed members — it’s true that Johnson’s conference frequently starts out divided.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., went for a visual description: Nails and jello.
“Pleasing everybody appears like nailing jello to a wall,” he said. “Different people have different constituencies with different things that are important to them. We’ve seen it right here.”
Another senior House Republican, requesting anonymity to discuss the sensitive conference dynamics, put it succinctly: “We win ugly.”
“That’s what happens when you have a small majority,” this person said.
That’s something even Johnson can agree with.
Asked about the unhappiness in his ranks, the speaker told reporters on Thursday that, when his members don’t get exactly what they ask for, tempers flare.
“Because everybody didn’t get 100% of what they wanted,” Johnson said. “But we got what we needed, and so sometimes people get frustrated when they don’t get every single thing that they’ve asked for, but they work through it.”
Johnson added that, after all the delays and false starts, House Republicans were leaving town this week in a great mood. “Because they understand we got the job done in spite of the challenges,” he said.
But to Democrats, all the happy talk ignores so much of the chaos.
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When MS NOW asked former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., about Johnson’s job performance, she had a simple assessment: “He’s making me look good.”
The difficulties of the GOP’s razor-thin majority have been on full display since the beginning of this Congress last January. But it was particularly apparent this week.
The dysfunction kicked off on Monday and Tuesday, as the House Rules Committee — the last stop for legislation before it heads to the floor — convened again and again for marathon markups, attempting to pave the way for floor consideration of a number of bills.
As one of the meetings stretched on, Norman, a member of the panel, dared Democrats to “drag it out as long as you want.”
“Let’s stay up all night!” he sarcastically exclaimed.
“I’m happy to oblige,” Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the panel, responded.
Democrats did oblige, with the hearing continuing for another two hours until after 9 p.m. At one point, another GOP member on the panel — Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga. — asked how much longer Democrats wanted to prolong the proceeding, wondering whether or not he should order dinner.
“You should always hydrate and you should always eat,” McGovern said.
When the Rules Committee finally reported its rule — a combined resolution setting up consideration for an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the GOP’s budget blueprint and the farm bill — House leaders had to hold the vote open for hours to get the votes they needed.
Once again, in the end, GOP leaders got the votes they needed. But they had to cut a deal on year-round ethanol-in-gas to adopt the rule.
That deal delayed an unrelated vote — and eventually created a whole set of new problems.
Shortly after the rule vote closed, Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, a member of the Agriculture Committee, loudly yelled for Johnson on the floor.
“Hey, Mr. Speaker, can we have a conversation?” Nunn shouted, loud enough for reporters watching from the gallery to hear.
After further conversations, Johnson was forced to pivot again, adding the farm bill back to the week’s agenda without an ethanol provision — with the assurance that he would hold a vote on that measure soon.
That, in turn, created even more headaches for Johnson.
“We had an agreement today and then you changed it!” Rep. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a vocal conservative, yelled in front of reporters as he left a meeting with Johnson. “I’m going to go vote no!”
Hours later, the House began what was supposed to be a five-minute vote to approve the GOP’s budget blueprint. That vote also remained open for hours — more than five hours, to be exact — as Johnson worked through the ethanol disagreements.
Finally, just after 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Johnson got the votes he needed.
While the week ended with Johnson holding his head up high, plenty of hurdles remain.
Congress was only able to approve a 45-day extension of the U.S.’ warrantless spying powers. The broader fight will be awaiting lawmakers when they return to the Capitol in 12 days.
Republicans are also now racing to meet Trump’s June 1 deadline for their immigration enforcement package — a target that’s quickly approaching.
That fight will almost certainly divide Republicans and expose new divisions. But to House Republicans, that’s par for the course.
“It was a little rough and tumble, but that’s the way the House is supposed to be,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said Thursday.
“It’s a contact sport,” he added. “Either put your cup on or go home.”
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.