House Speaker Mike Johnson is staring down a brutal pre-recess session next week as he tries to cram three high-stakes votes through a fractured conference.
Why it matters: Johnson (R-La.) has built a reputation for pulling off the improbable. But his rank-and-file have shown a new willingness to buck President Trump, who the speaker relies on to close tough votes.
The House will take up three con...
The situation facing House Speaker Mike Johnson is a microcosm of the broader tensions within the Republican Party, where ideological purity tests, distrust of institutional processes, and internal factionalism are complicating governance. The strongest version of this narrative highlights the genuine policy disagreements at play—conservatives' concerns about warrantless surveillance under FISA, skepticism about the Senate's reliability, and the urgency of funding critical agencies like DHS. The...