House Republicans spent this week venting about Mike Johnson, questioning the speaker’s hold on his tenuous House majority. Next week, he has to prove he’s capable of governing.

The annual Pentagon policy bill is due on the floor just in time to test Johnson’s ability to command and cajole his conference with must-pass legislation at stake. Already GOP leaders have had to delay release of bill text as they deal with a host of 11th-hour intraparty flare-ups that show just how hard it will be for the speaker to lead ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Johnson is already bruised from a high-profile fight with Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), a member of the GOP leadership team, over a surveillance provision she wanted attached to the sprawling defense package. She got her way after publicly accusing the speaker of lying and sandbagging conservatives.

Other deeply divisive issues remain, ranging from cryptocurrency policy to in vitro fertilization, that could threaten to further splinter the House GOP and imperil the typically bipartisan Pentagon bill. The brouhaha threatens to complicate Johnson’s effort to hammer out a still-brewing Republican health care plan he’s promised to unveil by early next week.

“I think there’s a lot of members that are frustrated that we’re not doing the things that we said that we were going to do,” said Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) when asked about Johnson’s leadership. “His response to that would be, we only have a [three] vote majority, but I think if you govern conservatively, Republicans will show up and vote for it.”

Steube, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he was “not happy” that Johnson initially excluded Stefanik’s legislation allowing for congressional notification of counterintelligence probes concerning candidates for federal office — part of an annual intelligence authorization legislation that, he said, included “a lot of conservative reforms.” The speaker argued he didn’t know about the measure and that Stefanik’s accusations were “false.”

Top GOP leaders are scrambling to douse the remaining fires and release text of the massive bill as early as Saturday, but it could slip into Sunday, according to four people granted anonymity to comment on internal planning. The negotiations are complicated, they say, because the final product must not only pass the GOP-controlled House but also withstand a possible Senate filibuster — meaning it needs to have Democratic buy-in.

“Getting an agreement right now between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate’s not easy,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise said. “But we’re getting close, and we want to get it done.”

Johnson played down the internal turmoil Thursday, saying Republicans “are exactly on the trajectory of where we’ve always planned to be.”

“Steady at the wheel, everybody,” he said. “It’s going to be fine.”

But the pending fights over the Pentagon bill — or the National Defense Authorization Act, as it is formally known — serve as a mini-preview for the turmoil Johnson is likely to face for the remainder of the 119th Congress as he tries to tackle health care, government funding and other flashpoints.

For instance, he is risking a showdown with conservative hard-liners if the final package doesn’t include a provision they favor that would ban the Federal Reserve from issuing a digital currency. Johnson promised House Freedom Caucus members he would include the provision in the defense bill amid a toxic intra-GOP row during the House’s shambolic “crypto week” this summer.

If the so-called central bank digital currency ban is missing, “it is a big deal,” said one House conservative who, like others quoted for this story, was granted anonymity to speak frankly about conference dynamics.

The fate of that provision is currently tied up in talks over another matter — one that highlights how Johnson is facing pressure from another influential corner of the House GOP: his committee chairs.

GOP leaders are taking steps to add a scaled-down version of a Senate housing proposal to the package. But Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) opposes the move and wants to advance a slate of House housing bills through his committee later this month.

Johnson and Hill, normally low-key operators, had an intense conversation on the House floor Wednesday night as House and Senate GOP leaders went back-and-forth, including at the White House’s behest, over how to add some housing affordability measures to the defense bill.

“French is very logical and measured, but he’s very stern in what he believes and what he wants,” said a senior House Republican.

Johnson, a staunch social conservative, is also facing pressure from women and others in the House to add a measure expanding coverage for in vitro fertilization and other fertility services for military families under DOD’s Tricare health system. He’s also caught between big business and China hawks — two major GOP blocs — on whether to add in new restrictions on U.S. investments in China. Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), who chairs a select committee on China, said he was hopeful the provision would make it in but pointed to opposition from the “financial community.”

The NDAA is “a train that comes around once a year,” he added. “We’re hoping to include it.”

President Donald Trump on Thursday endorsed Trever Nehls, the identical twin of retiring GOP Rep. Troy Nehls, to fill the Texas seat being vacated by his brother.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump lauded Troy Nehls for his congressional career, which he spent as a reliable MAGA ally, and praised his brother for his support of the military, veterans and “LAW AND ORDER,” commending their entire family as “fierce advocates” for the MAGA movement.

“In Congress, Trever will work hard to Keep our now very Secure Border, SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Grow our Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A., Advance American Energy DOMINANCE, Champion Election Integrity, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment,” he wrote in the post.

The retiring Nehls has demonstrated staunch loyalty to the president throughout his time in Congress, and the endorsement adds early momentum to his brother’s bid for the seat.

The lawmaker announced last week that he’d be retiring from Congress at the end of his third term representing a southwestern swath of Houston. The departure dealt yet another blow to Texas’ GOP congressional delegation after five other members announced their retirements. Republicans are banking on the state’s redistricting plan to shore up their majority with another five red seats.

Shortly after Troy Nehls announced his retirement, his brother announced on social media that he’d be stepping up to the plate to succeed him.

“District 22 needs a Representative who will follow in Troy’s footsteps and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Trump to defend our conservative values, secure the border, protect our families, and oppose the reckless and radical agenda that Democrats continue to press upon the American people,” he wrote. “I’m ready to take up that fight.”

This isn’t the first time he has followed in his brother’s footsteps. Trever Nehls also succeeded his twin as constable of Fort Bend County in 2013. He later won the Republican nomination to succeed him as the county’s sheriff in 2020 but later lost by 5 points in the general election.

Senate Republicans hit a temporary stumbling block in its latest effort to confirm dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees.

Democrats blocked Republicans from successfully taking an initial step toward confirming a package of more than 80 nominations because one of the picks doesn’t qualify to be included: Sara Bailey’s nomination to be the director of national drug control policy is a senior-level pick requiring individual consideration under the new rules Republicans themselves drafted earlier this year for multinominee confirmation votes.

Republicans are expected to refile the resolution after adding additional nominees to the package, bringing it to about 95 names, and vote on it next week. That will pave the way for another series of votes on confirming the nominees, which currently include 13 U.S. attorney designees and dozens of sub-Cabinet appointments.