Republican leadership doesn't care much for Amash, but that didn't matter. How Amash's NSA plan got a vote

If there is one episode that defines John Boehner’s leadership style, it’s how Rep. Justin Amash, the most defiant Republican in the House, won the right to offer a controversial amendment to curb the National Security Agency’s ability to collect phone data from Americans.

The amendment — opposed by Boehner, several key committee chairman and the White House — was narrowly defeated after an intense floor debate. It marked the first test of lawmakers’ support for sweeping NSA data collection programs exposed by Edward Snowden, the private contractor turned Moscow fugitive.


The vote scrambled the usual ideological fault lines in the House, with conservative Republicans siding with liberal Democrats. And it again showed Boehner’s willingness to let members of his unruly conference have their say on the House floor.

( Also on POLITICO: NSA vote splits parties, jars leaders)

Amash voted against Boehner for speaker. He votes against the leadership team nearly every day on the House floor. On Monday, the speaker’s office told Amash to approach Boehner in the House chamber to chart a course to offer the amendment to limit the phone data program. After that phone call, before he spoke to Boehner, Amash still took to Twitter to threaten leadership that he would bring the entire bill down.

Boehner opposes the NSA amendment. Leadership doesn’t care much for Amash. But they were listening to complaints from a broad swath of Republicans who wanted to vote against the spying program that Snowden revealed.

And even after GOP leadership privately determined Amash’s threats were likely empty — that he didn’t have the votes to keep the defense appropriations bill from coming to the floor — top Republican aides spent the week holding Amash’s hand, as they turned the unworkable amendment into language that would have limited one of the spy agency’s most effective tools.

Leadership was not always on board. For the past few weeks, the process was slowed and stymied through procedural maneuvers . But by Monday, Boehner let Amash know that the amendment was going forward.

( Also on POLITICO: Amash prevails as amendment fails)

“Amash was out there acting like he was fighting against the leadership trying to shut us down,” one Republican involved said. “The reality is [leadership was] twisting ourselves in knots for a week trying to craft language that was germane and got at the issue.”

Wednesday evening, the amendment was defeated 205-217. So in the end, it was a way to allow members to blow off steam. But now, Republicans and Democrats will have to go home in August and explain their votes on the program.

But by embracing an amendment that many warned would harm national security, Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy’s leadership team again showed that they are perfectly willing to let thorny, divisive issues get decided on the House floor instead of steering their conference in a certain direction. It’s the evidence for Boehner’s “let the House work its will” mantra.

( PHOTOS: Pols, pundits weigh in on NSA report)

With each day that went by since members of Congress were briefed about the NSA data collection program, the leadership trio and their aides heard complaints from the rank and file that they wanted a way to express disapproval with the controversial tactic.

GOP leadership sources say they were confident that they could’ve defeated Amash and his amendment, but given that so many Republicans were eager for the vote, there was a risk of truly dividing majority that’s practically duct-taped together.

In the end, leadership didn’t even whip against it — instead, they relied on committee leaders, like Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) of the Intelligence Committee, Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) of the Armed Services Committee and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) of the Judiciary Committee, to explain that it would harm national security. For instance, top members of Congress were told that the program stopped 54 terrorist attacks, according to lawmakers briefed on the activities. Committee leaders made phone calls all Wednesday.

Some of this helps explain Boehner’s strategy on immigration. He’s not interested in steering the Republican Conference in a direction it doesn’t want to go. For example, he has vowed to refuse legislation that doesn’t have the support of the majority of House Republicans. Down the road, that could prove troublesome if Congress and the White House want to overhaul those laws.

Amash was tough to bring around. The first amendment he brought to leadership attempted to change the substance of the NSA’s program — but Congress is not allowed to enact sweeping policy changes as part of spending bills. It then offered him space in the Intelligence reauthorization bill for this amendment — Amash wouldn’t relent. Eventually, the amendment was written to prevent the government from funding data collection from anyone besides those “subject of an investigation.” Amash told leadership that if the amendment passed, he would vote for the overall bill.

“We think it’s important to have a vote now,” Amash told POLITICO. “The American people demand a vote now. I go back to my district and hear from my constituents about this issue. People on both sides of the aisle want us to address their concerns.”

That the amendment came to the floor at all was also, in part, because GOP leadership started going around Amash. Instead, it negotiated with Reps. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) and Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), who persuaded Amash to scale back his demands and accept leadership’s pathway forward.

Several Republican sources called Amash some variation of a “child” in conversations with POLITICO. Allowing the amendment wasn’t about Amash, they said, but rather, a huge group of Republicans who wanted a vote on a key issue of the day. It’s unfortunate, those Republicans said, that his brand became intertwined with this vote.

Some Republicans worry the vote will only encourage Amash to keep defying leadership.

“He’s clearly one of the most powerful members,” said Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), a former Army lawyer who serves on the Intelligence Committee. Rooney voted against the amendment.

“It does,” Oklahoma Rep. James Lankford, a member of leadership, said when asked if this vote will embolden the Michigan Republican. “But it is also the House of Representatives. Every member has a voice. Either you have a voice or don’t have a voice.”

But Amash may also have to watch out, said another Republican, who spoke anonymously. “This kid has made his bed, and he’ll have to sleep in it.” Meaning, he has crossed leadership so many times that it will eventually come back to bite him.

Republicans, in part, also blame the White House for the mess on Amash’s amendment. It hatched a late effort to try to kill the amendment, with top legislative hands to President Barack Obama making calls to Capitol Hill to gauge where Republicans stood on the amendment. A late Tuesday afternoon statement from White House press secretary Jay Carney expressed opposition to Amash’s amendment, but Republicans pointed out that it didn’t say how important the program is to national security.

Amash, for his part, maintains that leadership would’ve had “a very difficult time bringing the bill to the floor” if his amendment wasn’t offered. To the criticism that he’s not a part of the Republican “team,” Amash said that he’s “always been willing to support bills that are brought to the floor provided we get a good amendment process and I am able to amend the bill in a way that improves it.”

“If my amendment passes, that would certainly constitute one of those times,” he said.

As for the aggressive tweets from Amash after Boehner agreed to meet with him?

“I think there was a misunderstanding and miscommunication between the speaker’s office and my office,” Amash said.