Scott Wong, Sahil Kapur and Ben Kamisar at NBC News:
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., who frequently defied his own party and announced last fall he would not seek re-election, said Tuesday he will resign from Congress at the end of next week, further shrinking the GOP's already razor-thin majority.
"Today I am announcing that I will depart Congress at the end of next week," Buck said in a statement. "I look forward to staying involved in our political process, as well as spending more time in Colorado and with my family."
His departure will cut the House Republican margin to 218-213; Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will continue to have two votes to spare before needing Democrats to govern. But illnesses and other unexpected absences could make his already difficult job even more ch
Reese Gorman and Riley Rogerson at The Daily Beast:
For their annual retreat, House Republicans traveled to the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia this week to rally around a message to defend their House majority and to settle on a path forward to fund the government.
There was just one problem: Less than half of the GOP conference even bothered to show up.
...
[M]uch of the schedule fell apart even before Republicans arrived. The poor turnout prompted organizers to compress the retreat from a two-and-a-half day event into little over a day. House Republicans invited former President Donald Trump to attend, but he declined. And the retreat’s marquee speaker, Fox News Business host Larry Kudlow, dropped out at the 11th hour. (Republicans replaced him with Howard Lutnick, the CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald.)
...
Many of Republican leadership’s loudest detractors skipped out on the retreat. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who has bemoaned the dearth of conservative policy wins this Congress and dangled ousting Johnson, didn’t deign to make an appearance.
Neither did several of the eight Republicans responsible for ousting McCarthy. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) was busy prepping for her appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told CNN he has “a farm to run.” And fittingly, as Johnson emphasized to members that they needed to support their colleagues, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was in Texas campaigning for Republican influencer Brandon Herrera, who is challenging fellow Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales.
