The tally was along party lines, 216–208.
The House of Representatives passed a rule on April 29 to block Democrat-led inquiries about the Trump administration’s use of the application Signal, which has been used to discuss sensitive information.
The tally was along party lines, 216–208.
Democrats have been seeking answers about Trump administration officials, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, using Signal, an app that allows for encrypted messages to be sent.
Senior administration officials such as Hegseth used it to communicate about U.S. military strikes in Yemen against the Houthis.
That was first reported by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, who appeared to be accidentally added to a group chat in Signal featuring Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and other top administration officials as the United States took out Houthi terrorists and infrastructure last month.
“We have no accounting of the breach other than what we’ve gotten from Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told reporters on April 1.
“Mr. Goldberg was being very, very careful of what information he put out there, so at this moment, you don’t even know what information was in the Signal chat.”
House Democrats want to put forth what are called “resolutions of inquiry,” where they formally request the president to provide information to Congress.
“I think Republicans are hiding because they are scared,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) said during the meeting of the House Rules Committee, which voted to advance the rule to a full House vote.
“Republicans want to hide behind this resolution so they don’t have to risk the wrath of the president.”
However, Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.), a Rules Committee member, said that Democrats wanting to put forth resolutions of inquiry “are using this to clog things up.”
The House Oversight Committee is scheduled to vote on whether to advance a resolution of inquiry regarding what has been dubbed “Signalgate.”
Hegseth has denied that classified information was shared on the Signal group chat.
More than 300 resolutions of inquiry have been put forth since 1947, according to the Congressional Research Service.
House Republicans sought to bring up resolutions of inquiry in 2022, seeking answers from the Biden administration over its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But they were blocked by the Democrats, who controlled the lower congressional chamber.