GOP leadership could face a real stinker.
Hardliners in the House Freedom Caucus have activated their Floor Action Response Team, also known as FART, to carefully monitor for any surprise resolutions aimed at sabotaging them, a source familiar with the move told The Post.
FART entails Freedom Caucus members taking turns on the lookout for unannounced resolutions that congressional leadership could pass via unanimous consent to sidestep any hurdles from rabble-rousers.
Amid the fervor over whether the hard-right flank will try to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), there have been some calls for retaliatory or defensive measures from the traditionalist Republican faction.
On Wednesday night, for example, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who backs Johnson, suggested Republicans must remove the three recalcitrant members from the House Rules Committee.
“The three members who refuse to support the Speaker’s agenda should resign from the Rules Committee immediately. If they refuse, they should be removed immediately. They are there on behalf of the conference, not themselves,” he posted on X.
Those three members he referenced appear to be Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), and Ralph Norman (R-SC), all of whom have threatened to scuttle Johnson’s plan to push through four foreign aid packages this week.
That trio had ostensibly been named to the rules committee as part of a broader set of concessions former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made to lock down the gavel last year.
In that capacity, they have repeatedly tanked key rules for legislation leadership has sought to fast-track, forcing Johnson to lean on Democrats to pass bills under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority.
Johnson has not-so-subtly blamed those Republicans for weakening his negotiating posture and stymying efforts to get concessions on border security.
“I don’t have all my Republicans who agree on that rule, and that means the only way to get a rule on the floor is that it requires a couple of Democrats,” Johnson told CNN’s “The Lead” Wednesday when asked about complaints he didn’t pursue border security.
“Well, [Democrats are] not for the border security,” he said. “So we don’t have a way. I literally don’t have the numbers.”
Some members of the Freedom Caucus have crowed about FART in the past.
“There is substantial legislation that passes the House of Representatives without a single member ever voting on it … it’s unanimous consent and they try to pass it really quickly,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) previously explained.
“We make things really smelly for them,” she added, referring to FART.
Meanwhile, Johnson is facing a growing threat to his speakership for seeking to advance a $60.8 billion Ukraine package, along with three other foreign aid bills.
That has roiled his far-right flank, who were already peeved about the spending bill and reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702 he pushed through.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Massie have already publicly dangled a motion to vacate the chair — or oust him — in protest.
Thus far, no one has pulled the trigger on a motion to vacate and there are some signs that Democrats may bail out Johnson.
“My philosophy is you do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday. “If I operated out of fear of a motion to vacate, I would never be able to do my job.”
As House Republicans plunge into a civil war, there have been some murmurs about paring back the one-vote threshold needed to trigger a motion to vacate.
This prompted a “tense” exchange between Johnson and several members Thursday about the aid bills, according to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led the effort to depose McCarthy last October.
Gaetz claimed he wanted clarification from Johnson that leadership wouldn’t try to weaken the motion to vacate threshold, and “did not get the answer that we wanted.”
“I think a motion to vacate is something that could put the conference in peril,” Gaetz told reporters. “But we are not going to surrender that accountability tool, particularly in a time when we’re seeing America’s interests subjugated to interests abroad.”