Republican infighting in the House of Representatives is jeopardizing the passage of President Donald Trump’s agenda, as deep divisions over three high-profile pieces of legislation stall action on the floor.
House GOP leadership canceled votes on Tuesday as internal negotiations failed to win over conservative holdouts to support an extension of a controversial surveillance program or mammoth legislation enacting agriculture and nutrition policies known as the farm bill.
Republicans on the House Rules Committee teed up a procedural vote advancing the legislative items on Tuesday after Democrats forced the panel to entertain dozens of failed amendments. But a swath of conservative lawmakers are noncommittal about supporting the procedural measure ahead of a highly anticipated vote scheduled for Wednesday morning.
“We’ve been through some trying times here,” House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said after reading a portion of the Serenity Prayer when the panel reconvened Tuesday afternoon amid flaring tensions among lawmakers.
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The intraparty divisions come as House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is up against a fast-approaching April 30 deadline to pass an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The speaker can spare just a handful of GOP defections on the House floor during the test vote, setting up the measure for a vote on final passage if Democrats unite in opposition.
“I am a NO on the Rule,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., wrote on social media Tuesday after she criticized the House Rules Committee for rejecting her amendments to the farm bill.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., also threatened to vote “no” during the procedural vote after voicing frustration with the House Rules panel’s proceedings.
GOP privacy hawks have so far withheld their support on the procedural measure and the underlying three-year extension of a FISA renewal bill absent reforms. The Trump administration has failed for weeks to convince Republican holdouts to support a clean extension of the spy law despite warning about the national security risks of letting the program lapse.
Though the procedural measure includes language permanently banning central bank digital currencies (CBDC) — a high priority for some conservative members — the spy law extension does not include a requirement that would direct intelligence officials to obtain a warrant before reviewing Americans’ data.
The surveillance tool allows the U.S. government to surveil foreigners who are using U.S. communication platforms abroad. The program also permits intelligence collection on Americans in contact with foreigners without a warrant — a policy long seen as problematic by a mix of conservatives and progressives who want stricter privacy guardrails.
“The Intel community always just comes in and says people will die if you do this,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said Tuesday, referring to a warrant requirement. “A lot of Americans died to give us and protect that Fourth Amendment right, that we don’t have government looking at our stuff.”
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The final shape of the House’s FISA renewal bill is also sparking tensions with the Senate.
“There’s a feeling that if it gets in the bill, then it’s going to sink the bill,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital, referring to the CBDC ban language that conservatives have described as an anti-surveillance measure. “I don’t know if that’s true or not. We’d love to at least vote on it.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday that a FISA renewal bill that contains a permanent ban on central bank digital currencies would be “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber.
Several House Republicans dismissed the majority leader’s comments, with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., referring to Thune as “Senator Palpatine” on social media.
Luna has also threatened to “blow up” the farm bill if controversial pesticide language is not scrapped from the legislation. Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) advocates and Democratic lawmakers have slammed the provisions as a liability shield for pesticide manufacturers.
Democratic lawmakers are unlikely to bail out Republican leadership during the critical test vote due to their likely opposition to the trio of legislative items within the procedural measure.
“Kash Patel is a major obstacle to getting to a FISA deal,” Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., a member of House Democratic leadership, said Tuesday, referring to the FBI head. “And it’s because many members of Congress simply do not trust Kash Patel.”
