By Yoko Kubota, Natalie Andrews and Lindsay Wise

WASHINGTON -- Republicans' sharp divisions burst into the open again Tuesday, with standoffs over a key overseas surveillance program, the farm bill and funding for the Department of Homeland Security grinding action in the House to a halt.

The latest roadblocks show the challenges facing Republican congressional leaders and President Trump in keeping their party colleagues in line, exacerbated by the GOP's razor- thin majority in the House.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) pledged four weeks ago to work on passing funding "in coming days" for most of DHS, which is more than two months into a shutdown, and then separately fund immigration enforcement operations using a special budget procedure. The Trump administration has been paying workers using other funding, but that money is expected to run out next week.

Thune, who passed a bipartisan DHS bill out of the Senate earlier this month, said he and Johnson were in constant contact. He said he was hopeful they would find a path forward despite a holdup in the House.

"He's got to manage his challenges there. We have to manage our challenges here," Thune said Tuesday. "But one way or the other, we've got to get these agencies funded."

With the end-of-week deadline approaching, Johnson said Monday that the Senate's bipartisan Senate DHS bill contained "problematic language" and that the House would need to change it before approving it -- introducing more uncertainty about when the money would be approved for agencies ranging from the Coast Guard to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"I just don't understand why Speaker Johnson can't take yes for an answer and put this bill up," said Rep. Pete Aguilar (D., Calif.).

The Senate passed a separate piece of legislation last week -- a budget blueprint that marks the first step in funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol -- and the House was expected to take that up as soon as later Tuesday.

Many House GOP lawmakers remain furious that party leaders agreed to split up the DHS bill, after Democrats made clear they wouldn't provide votes for any package that funded immigration enforcement activities following the deaths of two U.S. citizens earlier this year in Minnesota.

Johnson is "very good, but he's not a miracle worker," said Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.). "And he's clearly having trouble putting the votes together. I think we're gonna have to be patient."

The most public fighting centered on spying powers. The House Rules Committee went into recess on Monday night and resumed Tuesday afternoon after a hearing that discussed the extension of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, as well as the farm bill. The committee needs to pass a rule in order for legislation to come to the floor for a simple-majority vote. Underscoring the tensions, the Senate canceled its own vote on FISA on Tuesday.

When she convened the Rules committee session Tuesday, chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) started with the serenity prayer.

"We've been through some trying times here," Foxx said.

Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, responded by saying that he was wearing prayer beads blessed by the Dalai Lama but that they weren't helping him deal with his anger and anxiety. "We have long meetings, debates on amendments, and then we have to adjourn, because the people on your side are fighting with each other," McGovern told his Republican counterparts.

FISA is a powerful spying program that allows the government to collect information of foreigners overseas who are using U.S. communication systems. It also allows, without warrant, gathering information on Americans who are communicating with those foreigners -- a point of contention for privacy advocates and some lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Efforts by Trump and Republican party leaders to extend the program have so far been unsuccessful. Earlier this month, a proposal to extend the program failed to advance in the House after facing opposition from some Republican lawmakers. The program was originally set to expire on April 20, but has been extended to this Thursday.

The latest FISA proposal being reviewed by the House's rules committee still doesn't address the key point some lawmakers have been demanding: requiring warrants for content searches of data collected on Americans.

"We should all be standing up in defense of the Fourth Amendment," said Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas), a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, as lawmakers in the Rules Committee debated on Tuesday whether to add a warrant requirement. The proposal was later voted down. The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

"I understand why there's the desire to move down the road," Roy said. "But at some point you've got to have a full-throated debate on this issue."

Some Republican lawmakers, such as Rep. Keith Self of Texas, have been linking the issue of FISA with a call to ban the Federal Reserve from developing a Central Bank Digital Currency, saying such a system would give the government another tool to surveil people.

The farm bill -- a five year plan laying out spending for farmers and food-poverty programs -- is also stuck, with a primary dispute centering on whether makers of pesticides, such as Bayer, should be shielded from lawsuits. The immunity provision is opposed by activists from the Make America Healthy Again movement, who successfully advocated for its removal in an appropriations bill.

MAHA activists and supporters rallied outside the Supreme Court on Monday to protest the Trump administration's handling of glyphosate, the herbicide sold as Roundup.

"We will BLOW UP the farm bill" if the provisions aren't removed, warned Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R., Fla.) on X.

Write to Yoko Kubota at yoko.kubota@wsj.com, Natalie Andrews at natalie.andrews@wsj.com and Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2026 15:50 ET (19:50 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.