House Republicans recently sank numerous Democratic efforts to investigate President Donald Trump’s administration, but anyone who is not a close watcher of Congress would be forgiven for missing this late April development.
The roadblock was erected through a vote on a House rule, parliamentary parlance for a resolution establishing the parameters of floor debate. That can include delineating which amendments, if any, can be offered on an underlying piece of legislation. A House rule can also make substantive changes to the legislative measure itself, effectively altering its content in one fell swoop.
The Trump probe-related measure passed the House Rules Committee, where Republicans hold a 9-4 edge, as the majority party always does. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) then quietly put it on the chamber’s to-do list, though not with a flurry of press releases and news conferences.
The House rule is eye-glazing and 287 words long, too many to quote in full, none of which mention oversight.
“H.Res.354 — Providing for consideration of the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 60) providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the National Park Service relating to ‘Glen Canyon National Recreation Area: Motor Vehicles’; providing for consideration of the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 78) providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5.”
Mostly, this measure sets the limits on the chamber’s debate for five resolutions to strike down federal regulations. But the rule’s very last sentence dissonantly and cryptically stated, “Each day during the period from April 29, 2025, through September 30, 2025, shall not constitute a legislative day for purposes of clause 7 of rule XIII.”
And with those words, Republicans torpedoed a flotilla of Trump-focused resolutions of inquiry introduced by Democrats that were floating toward possible votes on the House floor. These measures covered a wide range of matters.
H.R. 255, which was introduced by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), demanded that Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio turn over all communications regarding the Signal app conversation about U.S. military strikes on the Houthis that accidentally included a journalist.
H.R. 286, a measure initiated by Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), directed the president to share all communications and documents relating to the Department of Government Efficiency’s use of artificial intelligence to mine agencies’ troves of “sensitive, personally identifiable information of American citizens.”
Other resolutions demand information on actions such as the partial shutdown of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, DOGE head Elon Musk’s possible conflicts of interest, and the deportation of certain persons to El Salvador.
Under the House’s rules, any legislator may introduce a resolution of inquiry, which then gets referred to committee. While most measures can be bottled up by the committee’s majority party, a resolution of inquiry is special, the Congressional Research Service notes.
“If the committee to which such a resolution is referred has not reported the measure back to the House within 14 legislative days after its introduction, a privileged and non-debatable motion to discharge the committee of further consideration of the resolution becomes available on the chamber floor.”
It is doubtful that any of these resolutions of inquiry would have passed the GOP-held House, to say nothing of extracting embarrassing information from the administration. Fewer than one in three resolutions of inquiry elicit a response from the executive branch, according to the CRS.
Nonetheless, Johnson and Republicans have no interest in permitting Democrats to try to force votes on controversial actions by the Trump administration, hence the provision in H.R. 354 that thwarts votes on resolutions on inquiries by refusing to tally legislative days “for the purposes of clause 7 of rule XIII,” the provision of the chamber rules that sets the 14-day legislative clock.
“We’re using the rules of the House to prevent political hijinks and political stunts, and that’s what the Democrats have, so we’re preventing this nonsensical waste of our time,” Johnson said. Democrats, he said, “showed us over the last four years, last eight years — they used lawfare, they used conspiracy theories, all these political weapons to just go after the president and make his life miserable.”
Democrats were not happy with the vote. “Mr. Speaker, I rise today to condemn the decision of my colleagues to block the House from considering resolutions of inquiry, a procedure that is designed to get members of Congress factual information from the executive branch,” Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) said. She was displeased by the kneecapping of an inquiry regarding the elimination of a bureau administering housing programs for elderly and disabled people.
Other Democrats were annoyed that H.R. 354 shielded Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from a looming resolution demanding information on his inclusion of family members on sensitive military matters.
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“They are so afraid of this issue — they can’t defend it — that they don’t want to talk about it,” said Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), ranking member of the Armed Services Committee. “They just want to make the entire issue go away and not allow people to talk about it.”
This is not the first time that Johnson and his co-partisans have used parliamentary jujitsu to protect the Trump administration. They passed a rule in March that prevented the House from having to vote to extend Trump’s right to impose tariffs because of a fentanyl emergency.
Kevin R. Kosar (@kevinrkosar) is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and edits UnderstandingCongress.org.