AMNA NAWAZ: Congress is on the verge of passing a large spending deal six months into its fiscal year and with less than 48 hours left before a partial government shutdown.
Lisa Desjardins has more on what has made this Congress one of history's most dysfunctional -- Lisa.
LISA DESJARDINS: Right.
That dysfunction is one of the defining characteristics of this House of Representatives.
We have a narrow Republican majority that has made governing unpredictable and at times impossible.
The basement of the U.S. Capitol is a messy place of power, of lawmakers in a thin majority and dim light.
For the past 15 months, House Republicans' regular meetings here have showcased the most chaotic majority in modern American history.
WOMAN: A speaker has not been elected.
LISA DESJARDINS: Not just the 15 votes it took to find a first speaker, nor the unprecedented ouster of that speaker in just 10 months.
MAN: The office of speaker of the House is hereby declared vacant.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down.
It doesn't work.
LISA DESJARDINS: But other failed votes that should be easy.
MAN: The nays are 216.
The resolution is not adopted.
LISA DESJARDINS: To keep government going, Speaker Mike Johnson has repeatedly suspended the rules to pass key legislation like spending bills.
MAN: This will be a five-minute vote.
LISA DESJARDINS: Common internal divide has taken an uncommon form.
REP. DAN MEUSER (R-PA): We need to be instilling trust.
We need to be instilling confidence, not showing dysfunction.
However, I know they don't mind the debate either.
And they don't mind it being public as well.
LISA DESJARDINS: And that is the point, to some.
REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): Like we all said the border is a number one issue.
What are we going to do about the border?
Nothing, right?
LISA DESJARDINS: If you recognize that face of House Freedom Caucus member Chip Roy, it may be for his repeated public criticism of Republican decisions.
He's one of 19 or so GOP rebels who say the party compromises too much.
They have power in part because of the slim three-vote margin in the House.
And, starting next week, disorder will make that even tighter... REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO): Too many Republican leaders are lying to America.
LISA DESJARDINS: ... with the departure of Colorado Congressman Ken Buck, who has blasted Republicans as pushing lies for former President Donald Trump.
Now, leaving months before his term is up, he is blunt.
REP. KEN BUCK: It is the worst year of the nine years and three months that I have been in Congress.
And having talked to former members, it's the worst year in 40, 50 years to be in Congress.
ERIN PERRINE, Republican Strategist: I think that this is a tough moment that can really define the conference overall.
LISA DESJARDINS: Erin Perrine is a Republican strategist who worked for Kevin McCarthy in House leadership.
She sees bright spots, including wide agreement last week on the bill to limit TikTok.
But the underlying tension remains.
ERIN PERRINE: Some people are never going to want to compromise.
They want to stand where they want to stand.
But to be able to get the conference to move legislation together forward, that's the big thing.
LISA DESJARDINS: The situations been a bit of a nightmare for Republicans like Sarah Chamberlain, who heads the Republican Main Street Partnership that includes 75 House members, with a creed focused on governing.
Chamberlain has watched debates turn into public disarray and knows of worse behind the scenes.
SARAH CHAMBERLAIN, President, Republican Main Street Partnership: I mean, there's almost been fistfights.
And it's funny.
We're not the the Parliament in England.
I mean, there truly have been very close to some real problems on the floor, and certainly in conference.
LISA DESJARDINS: Fistfights?
That's, like, from another era.
SARAH CHAMBERLAIN: Right.
The Democrats are ready.
The Democrats should be the group were working against, not fellow Republicans.
LISA DESJARDINS: In her alliance are members fighting for their political lives in swing districts and she says fighting for sensible governing on the floor of the House.
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): Patriotic Americans.
LISA DESJARDINS: She points to rebels like Matt Gaetz of Florida who have used social media and the small margin to derail what should be simple votes, like on the rules for debate.
SARAH CHAMBERLAIN: No one ever does that.
But now it gets done on a pretty regular basis, which is unfortunate.
They don't want to be on the team and maybe they're OK being in the minority.
At Main Street, we certainly do not want to be in the minority.
LISA DESJARDINS: But what Republican hard-liners want is to dig in.
What others in their party see as a nightmare, they shrug off.
REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): In the last 200-plus years, show me a year that isn't dysfunctional.
Everybody just looks back on it through the rose-colored glasses of time.
But it's always dysfunctional.
LISA DESJARDINS: Some of your mainstream guys in swing districts say they're getting hurt by it, because the Republicans look like they can't govern.
REP. TIM BURCHETT: So I'm supposed to compromise my views?
No, I'm not going to compromise.
The country's too important to me.
LISA DESJARDINS: In the small Capitol basement, it's all a massive test for a new speaker trying to govern with members who don't agree on what that means.
Now, hard-liners say the disorder is within GOP leadership, that they skirt rules and bend or break pledges.
But the majority of Republicans I speak with say, no, the issue is the hard-liners, that they demand untenable positions, like allowing a government shutdown.
Some hard-liners see shutdowns as leverage, even right at this moment, Amna, and others see them as a disaster.
AMNA NAWAZ: A fascinating look inside the conference.
But, Lisa, remind us why this all matters.
I mean, who's ultimately impacted by all this disarray among House Republicans?
LISA DESJARDINS: We have been used to dysfunction before, but this is sort of a special situation this last year-and-a-half.
When you have this level of dysfunction, there is not time, there is not the room on the Hill to deal with the real problems that we have in this country.
Let's take the deficit and the debt, something I think both parties agree needs to be addressed.
While these hard-liners have spent a lot of capital trying to deal with it, in truth, what's happened is, they have gone the other way.
While they have sort of held the line on spending here, there isn't time to actually get work done.
Another thing that's important here, Amna, is, this is why we have continued risks of shutdown.
We almost had a debt ceiling problem.
And this is the rest of the world looking at America as an unstable democracy.
Just this week, on Monday,Vladimir Putin in Russia called American democracy a catastrophe.
So, our reputation in the world is at stake with how the House of Representatives is able to do or not do its job.
And, of course, the majority is also at stake for Republicans.
AMNA NAWAZ: The world is watching.
Lisa Desjardins, thanks, as always.
LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.
Passport
Follow Us