The Food Was Terrible and Such Small Portions

You may recognize the title of this post as the punchline to a joke that originated in the 1920s. It’s an apt description of how the House Republicans are currently operating. They complain loudly and publicly about bills and … then they vote for them anyway.

But a few bills came to the floor and passed with little controversy, including one which will become law:

• H.R. 227: Clergy Act, which allows clergy an opportunity to change their minds about contributing to and receiving Social Security benefits, passed 350-5.
• H.R. 7959: IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act, which would, among other things, allow whistleblowers to be anonymous and to get interest on potential payments, passed 346-10.
• S. 1318: Fallen Servicemembers Religious Heritage Restoration Act, which would direct the American Battle Monuments Commission to establish a program to identify American-Jewish servicemembers buried in United States military cemeteries overseas under markers that incorrectly represent their religion and heritage, passed 235-191. This bill now goes to the President for signing into law.

Now back to the House Republicans’ entirely self-created problems:

This week’s poorly received (yet passed!) bills were about another temporary extension of FISA Section 102, finally funding all of the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE/CBP and the long delayed update of the Farm Bill.

The root of the House GOP’s angst are

• a very small majority
• several factions with irreconcilable demands
• a refusal to accept Democratic votes to get bills passed (sometimes Democrats do vote with Republicans, but not as a necessary condition of passage)

The result though is consistent: for all the complaints, the bills end up getting passed in the House.

Outcome

• FISA Section 702 Temporary extension passed 261-111
• DHS funding for everything except ICE/CBP through the end of the fiscal year (September 30) passed by voice vote
• Budget Resolution that starts reconciliation bill process passed 215-211. This reconciliation bill will provide still more funding for ICE and CBP even though last year’s reconciliation bill appropriated $140 billion dollars for those agencies through 2029.
• H.R. 7567: Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 passed 224-200. There were several amendments to the bill which also passed (fairly unusual lately) and included changing SNAP rules to allow purchases of rotisserie chickens and removing proposed changes on pesticide labeling. Congress.gov has the full list of amendments, their subjects and whether they passed or failed. The bill goes to the Senate next.

Posting Schedule Note: Both chambers of Congress are now out until May 11, so the regular previews/recaps won’t appear, but you’ll hear from us on other issues!

Amy West is the research & communications manager with GovTrack.

The Food Was Terrible and Such Small Portions was originally published by GovTrack and is republished with permission.