The House on Wednesday abruptly shelved legislation that would overhaul the Endangered Species Act, in an apparent response to Republican opposition to the bill.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) yanked the “ESA Amendments Act,” H.R. 1897, from consideration without explanation. But opposition from six Florida Republicans and other GOP members triggered the delay, said people familiar with the discussions granted anonymity to speak candidly.

The legislation has long been a Republican priority to prevent species protections from blocking development of energy and other projects.

Leaders were considering bringing up the bill last week but delayed action. Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), the bill’s main sponsor, told Blue Light News’s E&E News back then that his legislation had been delayed by more pressing measures but brushed off a question about opposition from fellow Republicans.

“Our schedule gets shuffled around a lot,” he said, adding, “You got these other issues front and center this week as well.”

His office did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment about the latest developments.

The measure, which passed out of committee in December largely along party lines, would give greater weight to the economic impacts of listing animals and plants as endangered. The bill would also limit environmental group litigation.

Among the apparent opponents is Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R), who on Tuesday posted an image of a Gadsden Flag featuring a sea turtle on social media, with the text: “Don’t tread on my turtles. Protected means protected. #EndangeredSpeciesAct.”

Luna’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other Republicans who have raised objections include Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar and New York Rep. Andrew Garbarino, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

It’s unclear what changes they want. Their offices did not immediately return a request for comment. Fitzpatrick often sides with Democrats on environmental issues.

California Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources panel, celebrated the bill getting derailed. “Republican leadership is badly out of step with the American people. They heard loud and clear this week that Americans will reject any legislation that leads to their wildlife disappearing forever,” Huffman said in a statement.

Ian Stevenson contributed to this report.

Tensions are continuing to rise inside the House GOP Conference as Republican leaders race to land a backup plan in the coming hours to reauthorize a controversial spy powers program.

Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview Wednesday afternoon that he’s “targeting tomorrow” for release of an updated proposal for extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. “It’s coming along well.”

It comes as Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned Wednesday that the House would need to file the bill by the end of this week to give his chamber time to act on the legislation ahead of the April 30 deadline. He previously suggested the Senate would take over FISA negotiations if the House couldn’t reach a deal.

The scramble is also taking place amid consternation from some House Republicans that Speaker Mike Johnson, in a desperate bid to get an agreement, isn’t taking their demands for a warrant requirement seriously and exploring plans where Democrats could help pass a long-term FISA reauthorization. Twenty conservatives blocked GOP leadership’s attempts to jam through a clean extension in the middle of the night last Friday.

“The speaker of the House told me that I should leave these negotiations to those that are more experts in the subject matter,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said in an interview Wednesday, after Johnson was seen huddling with some lawmakers on the House floor earlier in the day.

Two other people involved in the FISA floor talks acknowledged that conversations were contentious, with some conservatives expressing concerns that Johnson was preparing to back down on ceding to demands from members of his own party to add more guardrails to warrantless surveillance practices.

Leadership allies contend Johnson worked tirelessly with holdouts like Boebert all last week to try to strike a deal on an extension, but she was ultimately one of the 20 Republicans who voted down a procedural rule to advance an 18-month, clean FISA reauthorization, forcing the House to scramble to pass a 10-day patch.

Johnson has since been exploring ways to pass an extension that would appeal to more of a cross-section of members across both parties, but he has continued to engage Republicans. He had a one-on-one conversation just off the House floor Wednesday with Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) about landing an agreement on the FISA extension; Issa later said they were extremely close to an agreement.

The speaker also hosted a group of GOP lawmakers in his office Wednesday afternoon, including Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Byron Donalds of Florida and Chip Roy of Texas.

Leaving the meeting, Perry said he thought they were making progress and that the House could reach a deal by next week’s deadline — but, he added, “I didn’t say it was going to be easy or fast.”

Fitzpatrick, who is talking to Democrats about a FISA deal and met with Johnson Tuesday evening on the matter, said the White House is more open to making changes around querying data — but not the full warrant requirement that hard-liners are seeking. He also warned that Republicans would have to pass another short-term extension if they aren’t able to get a longer-term bill across the finish line in the coming days.

“FISA won’t go dark,” he added.

A group of House Republicans openly questioned the mid-decade redistricting war sparked by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, a day after a Democratic victory in Virginia threatened the GOP’s chances of holding onto its slim House majority in November.

The recriminations are not new — plenty of GOP lawmakers had private doubts about Trump’s aggressive push to draw maps in Texas and other red states. But now members are growing increasingly vocal as it appears the tit-for-tat he started could now result in a Democratic advantage.

Tuesday’s vote paves the way for as many as four Virginia Republicans to lose their seats.

Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.), recently elected to a junior House Republican leadership post, said “it was a mistake to go down this road.”

“Virginia does not change my opinion — I thought that Texas was a mistake. I thought California was a mistake on the part of the Democrats,” he said. “The problem is, at the end of the day, whatever party wins, we all have to govern. And it’s harder to do when we’ve eroded our constituents’ trust in our democracy and the fairness of our elections — which is what mid-cycle redistricting does.”

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said in an interview he warned the White House months ago the effort could backfire, while Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) suggested the outcome of the nearly yearlong saga should have been utterly predictable.

“Chess players think three to four moves ahead,” he said. “It doesn’t appear this happened.”

Even the man charged with preserving the House GOP majority, NRCC Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), declined to say the redistricting push was worth pursuing.

“It wasn’t my decision,” he told reporters.

Republicans are holding out hope that the state Supreme Court might still invalidate the Virginia vote, which used a ballot initiative to temporarily suspend a constitutional provision handing redistricting powers to an independent commission.

But both parties are now focused on Florida, where GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis appears intent on proceeding with his own redistricting effort in the coming weeks. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed Wednesday to take DeSantis and his allies head-on.

“Trump and Republicans launched this gerrymandering war, and we’ve made clear as Democrats that we’re going to finish it,” Jeffries said at a news conference.

House Republicans from the Sunshine State have already griped about pursuing an overly aggressive gerrymander, and several renewed those objections Wednesday.

“I don’t think it matters what the results are,” said one, Rep. Daniel Webster.

Hudson said “it’s not really my role” to tell the state how to proceed and that Florida legislators “have to decide what’s best for Florida.”

But Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Wednesday that he would support Florida Republicans pushing ahead, saying they have “the right and the intention to do it, and my view is that they should.”

Earlier Wednesday, the speaker blasted the Virginia effort as “a hyperpartisan gerrymandering boondoggle.”

Rep. John Rutherford, a Jacksonville-area Republican who has previously warned against Florida redistricting, said the Virginia results could force the GOP’s hand.

“I don’t like this redistricting in the middle of the census,” Rutherford said. “But in light of what Virginia is doing, we may need to respond to that.”

Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.