GOP Hard Liners Confront Mike Johnson Over Spending, Border

WASHINGTON—Angry House Republicans turned up the pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) to take a tougher line with Democrats on spending cuts and tightening the border, openly criticizing his leadership while bringing action on the floor to a halt Wednesday.

About a dozen hard-line GOP members voted with all Democrats to block a routine, noncontroversial measure called a rule, prompting party leaders to then cancel votes for the rest of the day. A similar protest last year froze action for about a week, and foreshadowed fraught votes later in the year that led to the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.).