All is not well in the Republican-led House of Representatives. Resignations in the chamber have reached a generational high. Legislative progress has slowed to a pace unseen in nearly a century. Lawmakers have struggled mightily to complete basic tasks. House Speaker Mike Johnson recently organized a retreat focused on unifying his conference, and most of his members didn’t show up.
Soon after, one of the party’s most radical members launched an effort to oust the incumbent House speaker, which comes six months after the previous ouster of the last House speaker.
A recent Punchbowl News report concluded, “This is the most chaotic, inefficient and ineffective majority we’ve seen in decades covering Congress.”
Can things get worse in the chamber? Of course they can. NBC News reported:
A band of hard-right agitators, backed by former President Donald Trump, revolted against GOP leaders Wednesday, blocking renewal of a powerful surveillance program that is set to expire next week and throwing the GOP-led House into chaos once again.
This vote was months in the making. GOP leaders invested real time and effort into advancing a compromise bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — a law first approved in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack covering warrantless surveillance of non-Americans. But when Johnson and his team brought the bill to the floor, 19 of their own members ignored their party’s leadership on a key procedural “rule” vote.
In theory, members of the Democratic minority could’ve saved the House speaker — again — but Johnson included provisions in the bill criticizing President Joe Biden’s foreign policy in the Middle East from the right, which led all House Democrats to balk.
The final tally was 193 to 228.
In case anyone needs a refresher on what adopting a “rule” is all about, it’s a routine part of the process: Before a bill can be voted on, members adopt a measure to establish ground rules for the length of the debate, how it can be amended, etc. In nearly every instance, it’s little more than a procedural speed bump, because members vote with their parties to begin the process, even if they’re skeptical of the underlying legislation.
During Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s tenure as House speaker, for example, she literally never lost a “rule” vote. During former Republican Reps. John Boehner’s and Paul Ryan’s tenures, they also never lost such a vote.
Over the last or so year, however, GOP leaders have lost seven “rule” votes: Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy lost three, and incumbent Speaker Johnson has now lost four.
Up until very recently, a House majority conference hadn’t lost a vote on adopting a rule in decades — a recent New York Times report called it “all but unthinkable” — but now, it’s becoming rather common. Seven failed rule votes — and counting — in this Congress is the most in 50 years. After the vote, Axios reported, “House Republicans emerged from a conference meeting on Wednesday afternoon with little clarity on how the House plans to move forward on a key federal surveillance bill that was blocked by right-wing hardliners.” The report quoted Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio, who described his party’s behind-closed-doors conference meeting as “pure chaos,” adding, “It wasn’t productive at all. It’s never productive. Members yell at each other.” I wrote a book a few years ago about Republicans abandoning their role as a governing party. It’s good to see the GOP continue to take steps to prove the thesis true. As for the near future, NBC News’ report went on to note, “It’s unclear whether Congress will be able to renew 702, which the administration says is a critical national security tool, before it expires on April 19,” which is a week from tomorrow. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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