House Republicans block Democrats from forcing votes on controversial topics including Signal use

House Republicans on Tuesday voted to block the chamber's Democrats from forcing votes on a myriad of issues, including the Trump administration's use of Signal to communicate, and potential Elon Musk conflicts of interest.

The move comes after House leaders on Monday added a rule to other measures they hoped would prevent Democrats from forcing votes on resolutions of inquiry from Tuesday through Sept. 30. 

The resolutions would have allowed Democrats to force the administration to respond or turn over specific information they request, by forcing a House floor vote on the topics after a set number of days, per The Hill. Democratic lawmakers have already filed some inquiries. 

The House approved the move to adopt the new rules that ban the resolutions in a 216-208 vote along party lines.

"[Republicans are] using the rules of the House to prevent political hijinks and political stunts," House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement. “[Democrats] showed us over the last four years, last eight years — they used lawfare, they used conspiracy theories, all these political weapons to just go after the president and make his life miserable.

“That’s not what the American people voted for, that’s not what they deserve," he continued. "We can do better, so we’re preventing this nonsensical waste of our time. We don’t have time to waste.”

It comes after Democrats filed resolutions of inquiries into the administration’s use of the encrypted messaging app Signal, and information on the impact the Department of Government Efficiency has had on Americans.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.