House GOP leaders suffer 'embarrassing defeat' in Rules Committee: reporter

House Republicans are barely holding onto control of a key congressional institution that is generally a vehicle for the majority's will, Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman reported on Tuesday.

"JUST NOW — House Republican leadership just suffered an embarrassing defeat in the Rules Committee," Sherman posted to X. "The GOP leadership tried to block an amendment to the NDAA that would repeal the 1991 and 2002 AUMFs."

AUMFs, or authorizations for the use of military force, are congressional resolutions that authorize military action. The 1991 and 2002 AUMFs greenlit respective wars in Iraq. It is common for AUMFs, once passed, to go decades without being repealed, even long after the war in question has ended.

The amendment in question to the defense budget was offered by a diverse, bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Chip Roy (R-TX), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Josh Brecheen (R-OK), Eli Crane (R-AZ), and Eric Burlison (R-MO).

Despite being a bipartisan effort, it was Democrats who led the way in forcing the vote, Sherman noted: "Democrats moved to make the amendment in order and won."

Such a situation is highly unusual, he continued: "The Rules Committee is supposed to be an organ of the majority leadership. It’s slipping away."

This comes as the House GOP majority, one of the most razor-thin majorities in the history of Congress, has suffered many other internal conflicts that have allowed Democrats to force bipartisan votes on key issues, with another that could potentially pass being a resolution, led by Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), to compel further release of the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case files.