MICHAEL CLOUD

The two Texas holdouts, combined with a handful of other members who have vowed to vote against Rep. Steve Scalise, could delay the selection of the next House speaker.

Texas has by far the largest Republican delegation in the House, and gaining their support would be a major boost for any candidate as the conference meets to pick new leaders next week.

The funding bill was a long shot, but far-right U.S. representatives said it didn’t go far enough in promoting their priorities, including border security and defunding investigations into Donald Trump.

The chair of the House Appropriations Committee vows to hold spending bills to 2022 levels to counter “years of out-of-control spending.”

GOP lawmakers dismiss the charges over classified documents as a partisan attack, but Democrats say the matter proves nobody is above the law.

The debt agreement, they say, violated a promise to cut spending that secured crucial support for U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The two Texas Republicans are drumming up attention to the decade-old case as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang this week.

All Texas Democratic members backed the bill, along with five Republicans: U.S. Reps. Michael Burgess of Lewisville, Michael Cloud of Victoria, Lance Gooden of Terrell, Louie Gohmert of Tyler and Chip Roy of Austin.

On the same day that U.S. Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department had found no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, nine Texas Republicans in Congress signed a letter chastising Barr for a “shocking lack of action” in response to unproven allegations that fraud occurred. They released the letter hours after Barr publicly stated there were no indications the election would be overturned, saying that the Justice Department has followed up on specific complaints. “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election," Barr told the Associated Press. The letter signed by Cloud and other House members pleaded for the Justice Department to issue subpoenas and search warrants to review ballot materials and election devices. Prior to the election, Barr was one of the Cabinet officials who was closest to the president.