GOP leaders at impasse

House GOP leaders at impasse on FISA, farm bill and budget resolution

Mike Johnson doesn’t have a clear path forward to advance any of these key legislative priorities.

Meredith Lee Hill

The House floor is completely frozen after GOP leaders failed to advance a procedural rule governing consideration of three key pieces of legislation.

The chamber reconvened this morning, only to immediately recess as leaders continue to negotiate with their rank-and-file in hopes of breaking a number of stalemates.

King Charles III will arrive on Capitol Hill shortly after 1 p.m to meet with the speaker and Hill leadership before his 3 p.m. address, slicing into key negotiating time.

Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a raft of internal GOP crises on a spy power extension, the farm bill and the budget resolution.

Republican leaders worked late into the night to force hard-liners to swallow the same plan to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that those same lawmakers tanked last week.

But at least ten Republicans are still dug in on the matter and the full House Freedom Caucus has not agreed to any FISA deal with Johnson, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

The ultraconservatives also are still pushing for a ban on a central bank digital currency as part of any FISA deal, which GOP leadership, White House officials and other Republicans have blocked.

GOP leaders are also trying to navigate a MAGA revolt over a pesticide provision in the farm bill. They are working to make in order for a floor vote an amendment from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) to strip out a controversial pesticide provision that MAHA advocates argue acts as a liability shield for pesticide companies.

A group of midwestern Republicans are also pushing for a vote on an amendment that would facilitate year-round sales of a type of ethanol known as E-15, which is major fight among GOP factions.

Conservatives are also wary of proceeding with the Senate-advanced budget resolution that would only allow Congress to craft a party-line package addressing funding for immigration enforcement rather than a wider array of policy priorities.