A group of politically vulnerable G.O.P. women has backed legislation that purports to expand birth control access but would have little effect. Critics say the bill is meant to distract from their anti-abortion stances.
In uniting his party behind an annual defense bill loaded with social policy restrictions, including on abortion, Speaker Kevin McCarthy scored a short-term victory that could put his majority in peril.
A long-shot Democratic effort to force a debt-limit increase to the floor hinges on at least five G.O.P. defections. These House Republicans are considered the likeliest.