WASHINGTON — As the slim House Republican majority hangs on a razor’s edge, lawmakers are getting a stern warning from party leadership: You should be absent only for matters of life and death.
That message has been delivered to members in recent party meetings and private conversations, according to multiple lawmakers, and it has taken on an increasing sense of urgency as the GOP’s margins have shrunk even further in recent weeks with the unexpected death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., and the shock midsession retirement of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s office confirmed to NBC News that it is advising members that “outside of life-and-death circumstances, the whip’s office expects members to be here working on behalf of the American people.”
His office has told members their presence in Washington is essential if they are to “pass legislation to lower costs, secure the border, and support the president’s agenda.”
Not excusable absences? Campaign events — an important distinction, given 17 House Republicans are running for higher office.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who is running for governor, said Emmer, R-Minn., told Republicans at a meeting last week: “If you’ve got a family emergency, then you can miss a vote. If you run for another office, no, you show up here.”
But not everyone has gotten the memo. Rep. Wesley Hunt, who is running for the Senate in Texas, missed a series of votes this month as he campaigns back home. They include a critical vote Tuesday, when a GOP labor bill was defeated and two others were pulled from the floor because of Republican defections and absences.
His vote alone, however, wouldn’t have made a difference on the labor bill, given Republicans were several votes shy of victory. Two other absences met Emmer’s life-or-death standard: Rep. Greg Murphy of North Carolina is recovering this week from surgery, while Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin is at home with his wife, who is also undergoing a surgical procedure.
Multiple members of leadership — including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. — have spoken directly with Hunt about his attendance, according to a source familiar with the matter. Hunt has promised leadership that if he’s needed, he will fly back for votes, the source said.
And that’s exactly what happened last week, when Hunt flew back to Washington because his presence was requested in the Capitol for a key procedural vote.
“I have been in constant communication with Speaker Johnson, and if he needs my vote, just like last week, he can count on it,” Hunt said in a statement to NBC News.
Still, Hunt’s absence from the Capitol has frustrated members of GOP leadership, according to two Republican sources familiar with the matter.
Asked about Hunt, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., noted that GOP Rep. Jim Baird of Indiana showed up at the Capitol this week — in a neck brace, no less — after having been injured last week in a car accident. Scalise said he went up to Baird on the House floor to personally thank him.
“He was here voting,” Scalise said of Baird. “So nobody’s got an excuse to not be here and do their job.”
Emmer declined to comment on Hunt’s absences or the conversations they may have had.
“I’m not going to get into any specific members,” he told NBC News. “We got to work with our members, especially on life and death. You got family issues? We’ve got a major car accident that we’re lucky that our member and his wife are still alive. People have to deal with those. Everything else, I tell them: ‘No, you need to be here.’”
Internal tension over attendance issues is growing as the GOP’s historically small majority has shrunk to 218 seats, with Democrats controlling 213. And Democrats are poised to add to their margin soon with the Jan. 31 special election to fill a safe blue seat in Texas previously held by Democrat Sylvester Turner, who died in March.
The news of Baird’s car accident last week came around the same time members were learning of LaMalfa’s sudden death, which provided a reminder to lawmakers just how fragile life — and their majority — truly is.
In another sign of the GOP’s governing struggles, more Democrats voted than Republicans in the House on Monday. On Tuesday, the only bill they were able to pass was legislation to loosen the federal efficiency standards for showerheads. Meanwhile, after several discharge petitions — a tool used by the minority to force floor action — have succeeded, the threat of additional petitions looms heavily over everything leadership does.
After Tuesday’s floor mishaps, Johnson insisted to NBC News: “We’re totally in control of the House. … This is life with a small margin.”
But the reality is that on some days, the GOP’s majority is essentially nonexistent. That could prove challenging ahead of the midterms, when leadership typically cranks out partisan messaging bills that will require cooperation — and attendance — from their own party.
The precarious dynamic has leadership doling out health advice to members that would be more typical coming from a doctor than a party leader.
“They better be here,” Johnson told NBC News when he was asked about his message to members. “I’ve told everybody, and not in jest — I said, ‘No adventure sports, no risk taking, take your vitamins, and stay healthy and be here.’”
While the House has never flipped party control midsession, the 1930 midterm elections demonstrated how vulnerable small margins can be when members of Congress die suddenly.
After Election Day 1930, Republicans held a narrow majority. At that time, there would usually be a 13-month gap between the election and the start of the new session. By opening day of the 72nd Congress in December 1931, 14 members-elect had died, shifting power from Republicans to Democrats.
While it would be unprecedented for the House to flip control midsession, it’s not out of the realm of possibility. An accidental majority would put Democrats in the same position Republican leaders are in now, albeit while they seized committee gavels and ground what’s left of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda to a halt. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the would-be speaker, and his team have seemed to revel in the Republican chaos and are hopeful for a much larger majority after the midterms.
“They can’t even legislate. This group of people — they don’t know how to organize a two-car funeral,” Jeffries said at his news conference Wednesday. “They’re losing votes week after week after week.”
The prospect of more illnesses or resignations has some members on edge.
“We’re one flu season away from losing the majority,” said GOP Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee.
