Spurred by Donald Trump, House Republicans descend into chaos after right-wing lawmakers derail vote

WASHINGTON – Just days after returning from a two-week recess, right-wing fury – spurred on by former President Donald Trump – brought the House to a standstill in a significant blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., as he grapples with a threat to his leadership post.

Nineteen House Republicans shot down a procedural step known as a “rule” vote in the House on a controversial spying law that has renewed GOP infighting. The move effectively froze the House and left the legislation in a state of limbo.

In the days leading up to the vote, House Republicans were confident they could take the lead on renewal of the  Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – or FISA – and pass it this week. But it quickly became apparent that several conservative hard-liners, furious at Johnson and accusing leaders of leaving their voices out, were angling to shut down the bill.

Trump also told Republicans early Wednesday to “KILL FISA” in an 11th-hour post on Truth Social, emboldening conservative opposition to Johnson’s reapproval plan.

All this was happening as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Grenee, R-Ga., dangles a motion to vacate over Johnson’s head. It's an effort that, if passed, would boot him from the speakership.

Greene's move, alongside the open rebellion in the House vote, underscores the growing frustration at Johnson from conservatives who say the speaker isn’t fighting hard enough for them.

One of the conservatives who derailed FISA, Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., told USA TODAY that frustration within hard-right ranks has reached a point that it's not clear Johnson would survive an effort to oust him, calling the House “fickle.”

Johnson sought to sell the plan to reauthorize the surveillance legislation in a meeting Wednesday morning and touted other reforms to FISA, stressing its importance as advocates said it was essential to national security.

Those efforts, however, proved futile.

Sparks fly in GOP meeting: ‘Déjà vu of the déjà vus’

Shortly after conservatives tanked the rule vote, Republican leaders called a snap meeting among GOP lawmakers to discuss the path forward.

But members leaving the impromptu huddle didn't describe it as productive. 

Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, left the meeting early and said there was “zero” progress made on renewing FISA. The forum quickly devolved into members yelling at one another and blaming other lawmakers for the dysfunction, said Miller, visibly frustrated.

“If anyone says that there’s a path forward on FISA right now, they’re lying,” Miller said. Johnson “literally has to pull a rabbit out of a magic hat for this thing to work at this point.”

During the meeting’s open-mic session, some members called to punish the conservative rabble rousers for tanking the rule vote. Most lawmakers leaving the intense meeting described it as a venting session, which GOP conference meetings have often become in recent months.

“I’m getting déjà vu of the déjà vus,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., quipped.

But even amid the frustration, some lawmakers acknowledge it’s par for the course for the House GOP in recent months.

“It’s muscle memory,” said Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., who pointed out that rule votes have failed before and Republicans have moved on. “This is a more important issue, and obviously we’re coming up on a deadline. But this is muscle memory for our conference right now.”

All the chaos is against the backdrop of Greene’s efforts to oust Johnson, which she launched last month after the speaker worked with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. The Georgia Republican met with Johnson for more than an hour on Wednesday, but leaving the speaker’s office, she said Johnson simply offered “a lot of excuses.”

“He has not done the job that we elected him to do, and I told him that. I said, 'None of this is changing,'” Greene said. “His actions alone are the only thing that can sway me.”

If the House is frozen, will the Senate come up with its own plan?

FISA reauthorization may have a clearer path to approval in the Senate, where leaders on both sides agree on the need to extend the spying law and ultraconservative senators don't have the same power to derail proceedings.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Wednesday that Congress “must ensure FISA authorities are renewed during this work period.” Congress takes another break after next week, leaving only seven days to pass the bill before an April 19 deadline.

GOP Whip Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told USA TODAY that the Senate will be “exploring options” to lead on the reauthorization bill given the holdup in the House: “One thing we can’t afford is to have it go dark.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said House lawmakers during the impromptu GOP meeting on Wednesday raised the “boogeyman” of getting “jammed by the Senate” if they don’t handle the spying bill first in the lower chamber.

“And then somebody suggested that we should just let them struggle with it and send it to us,” he said.

If that happens, there'd be a similar debate on the Senate side over what actually goes in the legislation – though the final result likely wouldn't include the changes some House lawmakers want because of the general consensus in the upper chamber.

That attitude is not unanimous, however.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah – leader of the GOP Senate Steering Committee, the upper chamber’s equivalent to the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus – told USA TODAY he would oppose renewing the legislation without an amendment to require intelligence officials to get a warrant before accessing Americans’ data, a provision that has become a major source of contention in the House.

Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, said the surveillance law “is in need of serious reform”

“I’m glad it went down in the House today because I think it gives us an opportunity to force some of those reforms,” he said.

Trump weighs in on House affairs, again

Trump’s foray into the debate Wednesday appeared to be the final nail in the coffin for House GOP leaders’ FISA plans. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a vocal supporter of changing the legislation, told reporters Wednesday morning that the former president was “right” and that his comments helped their cause.

Asked whether Trump’s message influenced any votes in the House, Vance – a close Trump ally in the upper chamber – quipped: “Certainly didn’t hurt.”

Johnson said this week that he intends to speak with the former president and defended his plan, arguing the effort to renew FISA already includes swaths of reforms and gives the law “real teeth” to address abuses.

Johnson will have his opportunity to speak with Trump in person soon. Just days after the former president’s comments appeared to plunge the House into chaos, the speaker is slated to deliver a joint news conference with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on election integrity.

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, a Trump loyalist and hard-right member who often defends Johnson, lamented that the speaker has an “impossible job” and agreed with the sentiment that Trump’s comments probably contributed to the paralysis in the House.

But when asked whether he would listen to Trump over Johnson, Nehls didn’t hesitate.

“Oh yes,” Nehls said. “If Speaker Johnson ain’t getting advice from Donald Trump, he’s missing a lot.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House Republicans in chaos after Trump weighs in, conservatives rebel