House GOP votes to stop Democrats’ Signal chat inquiry and other anti-Trump probes

Republicans rallied around President Trump and his team Tuesday by voting to halt Democratic attempts to release potentially embarrassing information about Elon Musk and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The Republicans approved a rules change limiting the power of resolutions of inquiry, or ROIs, a parliamentary tool to demand information from the president or the head of an executive branch agency.

Under the change, approved on a 216-208 party-line vote, ROIs no longer get special priority, meaning Republicans can shunt Democrats’ requests without putting up the issues for votes.

The change lasts through the end of September. Republican lawmakers said they needed breathing space to devote time to Mr. Trump’s agenda and feared a tsunami of distracting Democratic ROIs.

“Democrats are using this to clog things up and stop us from doing our business,” Rep. Michelle Fischbach, Minnesota Republican, said during debate this week.

Democrats lamented the loss of one of the few tools available to the House minority to drive a wedge between Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans. They said they had been judicious in their use of ROIs.

“Republicans want to hide behind this resolution so they don’t have to risk the wrath of the president if they were to do their job and take votes on getting answers and conducting oversight,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Pennsylvania Democrat.

ROIs drafted in a certain way are given priority consideration. The committee of jurisdiction has two weeks to act. If it doesn’t, the whole House quickly votes.

Although the majority is usually expected to win the vote, it can create headaches for politically vulnerable members.

Democrats hoped to use ROIs on significant issues, including demands that Mr. Hegseth turn over documents from Signal chats that may have exposed sensitive information about U.S. policy in Yemen.

Democrats believe the evidence, if they could obtain it, would show that Mr. Hegseth risked national security.

“They don’t want to have to vote on Signalgate. They don’t want to have to actually take up an issue that they know is controversial,” said Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, New Mexico Democrat.

Democrats have also proposed several ROIs involving Mr. Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, seeking insight into what security clearances DOGE members hold and whether they have accessed sensitive information they shouldn’t have.

Sean Vitka, executive director of Demand Progress, a liberal pressure group, said Republicans were manipulating the rules to protect Mr. Trump’s team.

Republicans pointed out that Democrats limited the power of ROIs in 2021 when President Biden took office.

Democrats said their reasons were the year-old pandemic and worries that committees couldn’t operate normally.

“There was a reason that we explained to the world. There was a pandemic going on,” Ms. Fernandez said.

Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, suggested it was a smokescreen.

He said committees were up and running at the time. He said the real reason Democrats shut down ROIs was that they didn’t want to have to take tricky votes on demands for information about Mr. Biden’s “foolish incompetence” on immigration.

“We wanted to get data about the border; they didn’t want to answer it,” Mr. Roy said.

Having been through that, he said, he was sympathetic to Democrats’ complaints.

He objected to Republican calls for unilateral disarmament, though Democrats revived their pause the next time they controlled the House and held the White House.

Though congressional Democrats have limited ability to make mischief, federal judges are still deeply involved in DOGE’s activities and, to some extent, the Signal chats.

A judge has ordered the government to ensure that the Trump officials who participated in the chats have complied with open records laws.

Several judges have ordered DOGE employees to restrict their activities. In some cases, they found that the employees had overstepped their bounds by accessing other agency systems.