Competing resolutions to censure Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, are causing some division within the House GOP on Wednesday.

The Texas Democrat was thrown out of President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night after repeatedly attempting to interrupt the speech, minutes after it began.

A resolution to punish Green over the incident is likely to pass, even with Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House. But differing ideas over how to get there have led to some frustrations between separate House GOP factions.

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-WA, a moderate Republican, announced Wednesday he intends to force a vote on his own bill via a privileged resolution, meaning House leaders are forced to take it up within two days of the House being in session.

It accused Green of having ‘repeatedly violated the rules of decorum in the House of Representatives during President Donald J. Trump’s joint address to Congress,’ according to text provided to Fox News Digital.

Notably, Newhouse is one of two House Republicans left in Congress who voted to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot – a fact that backers of a competing censure resolution seized on.

Fox News Digital was told he had begun work on his resolution against Green on Tuesday night.

The next morning, the House Freedom Caucus announced it would be filing legislation to censure the Texas Democrat, led by Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, began collecting signatures for a censure resolution against Green around 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Nehls’ bill currently has nearly 30 Republican co-sponsors, including members of the House Freedom Caucus, a source told Fox News Digital.

But two other sources familiar with discussions told Fox News Digital that Newhouse’s resolution is most likely to be taken up by House GOP leadership.

A House GOP senior aide said in response, ‘It’s just tone deaf to even think that leadership would run with a censure from one of the two remaining GOP members who voted to impeach President Trump.’

‘It would be an obvious play to help shield him from another close primary challenge,’ the aide said.

But a second senior House GOP aide countered that, telling Fox News Digital that House GOP leadership had been aware of Newhouse’s plans on Tuesday night.

Newhouse reached out to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., immediately after Trump’s address and both agreed on the need to censure Green, the second aide said.

The senior aide said there was ‘no better individual’ to lead the resolution given the level of respect afforded to Newhouse by fellow House Republicans. 

They also pointed out that Newhouse has already fended off tough primary challenges from his right, noting Trump likes winners, and that Newhouse praised Trump after the address on Tuesday night.

Nehls, meanwhile, is still undeterred. His office told Fox News Digital that he intends to move full steam and introduced his resolution on Wednesday afternoon.

And Green, for his part, told the Huffington Post he was ‘guilty’ after being read the text of Newhouse’s resolution.

House GOP leaders have already signaled they would look at punishing Green for his outburst.

Green remained defiant when he stopped to speak with the White House press pool on the first floor of the U.S. Capitol after being thrown out of the second floor House chamber, where Trump was speaking on Tuesday night.

‘I’m willing to suffer whatever punishment is available to me. I didn’t say to anyone, don’t punish me. I’ve said I’ll accept the punishment,’ Green said, according to the White House press pool report.

‘But it’s worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president’s desire to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.’

When reached for comment, Johnson’s office pointed Fox News Digital to the speaker’s earlier comments on Newhouse’s resolution.

‘I believe it is the first one out of the gate,’ he said. ‘I think [Green’s protest is] unprecedented. Certainly in the modern era. It wasn’t an excited utterance. It was a, you know, planned, prolonged protest.’

President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, spent much of his confirmation hearing Wednesday defending the president’s decision to put a 15% cap on indirect research costs dispersed by the NIH. 

Bhattacharya, a physician, Stanford professor of medicine and senior fellow at the university’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, would not explicitly say he disagreed with the cuts, or that, if confirmed, he would step in to stop them. Rather, he said he would ‘follow the law,’ while also investigating the impact of the cuts and ensuring every NIH researcher doing work that advances the health outcomes of Americans has the resources necessary to do their work.

Bhattacharya also laid out a new, decentralized vision for future research at NIH that he said will be aimed at embracing dissenting ideas and transparency, while focusing on research topics that have the best chance at directly benefiting health outcomes of Americans. Bhattacharya added that he wants to rid the agency’s research portfolio of other ‘frivolous’ efforts, that he says do little to directly benefit health outcomes.

‘There’s a lot of distrust about where the money goes because the trust in the public health establishment has collapsed since the pandemic,’ Bhattacharya said. ‘I think transparency regarding indirect costs is absolutely worthwhile. It’s something that universities can fix by working together to make sure that where that money goes is made clear.’  

Democratic Sens. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Ed Markey of Massachusetts both pressed Bhattacharya specifically about research that looks into health issues that impact minorities — an area Democrats worry could be undermined at the NIH due to Trump’s campaign against the Left’s views on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). 

‘The health needs of minority populations in this country are a vital priority for me … I want to make sure the research that the NIH does addresses those health needs, and I don’t see anything in the president’s orders that contradicts that, in fact, quite to the contrary,’ Bhattacharya said. ‘What I’ve heard from [Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] and from the president is ‘Let’s make America Healthy,’ meaning all Americans.’

When Alsobrooks cited a project Bhattacharya worked on related to Alzheimer’s disease, which included mentoring ‘diverse’ professionals, he said that his understanding of that part of the project meant mentoring researchers with a diverse set of ideas, not a diverse set of skin colors. 

‘I think fundamentally what matters is: Do scientists have an idea that advances the scientific field they’re in?’ Bhattacharya replied. ‘Do they have an idea that ends up addressing the health needs of Americans?’

Bhattacharya acknowledged that ‘identifying’ health disparities among minority groups is important, but emphasized the need for research that drives meaningful outcomes.

Bhattacharya also challenged the premise of a similar line of questioning from Markey, who argued Trump was utilizing ideological flashpoints to ‘slow’ life-saving research.

‘I don’t agree with you, senator, that President Trump is opposed to [speeding up research]. In fact, quite the opposite, he is quite in favor of making America healthy,’ Bhattacharya told Markey. ‘I don’t believe that ideology ought to determine whether one gets research or not.’

In addition to addressing numerous questions from Democrats about Trump’s funding cuts, Bhattacharya also outlined his plans to reform the NIH’s research portfolio during his Wednesday confirmation hearing.

Trump’s NIH nominee said he hopes to focus on cutting-edge research and other ‘big ideas’ as opposed to continuing to put all the federal government’s money into research that doesn’t involve the same ambitious goals. He also briefly spoke about improving the frequency of ‘validation research’ and increasing the number of NIH applications funded for younger investigators.

Concerns from Republicans during the hearing included whether Bhattacharya would continue supporting research investigating the link between vaccines and autism, something Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said has been proven over and over again to have no link, and whether he will permit the continued use of aborted fetal tissue in NIH-funded research.

Bhattacharya agreed with Cassidy that the linkage between autism and vaccines is clear — there isn’t one. However, he acknowledged that others may disagree with him. In line with his commitment to embracing dissenting ideas and promoting free speech in medical research, he suggested that commissioning studies could help the public gain a clearer understanding that no link exists.

On the issue of halting the use of aborted fetal tissue, during Trump’s first term, he banned its use, and Bhattacharya said he would follow the president’s lead on the issue.

House Republicans are hoping to affirm that they are on the same page as Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday night.

Musk is huddling with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other members of the House GOP Conference around 7 p.m. ET on Capitol Hill, according to an invitation obtained by Fox News Digital.

‘Specifics, you know, on what DOGE has been doing, and how they’ve accomplished it. And then moving forward, how will that look like?’ Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital when asked what he hoped to get out of the meeting. ‘I think the more they can articulate to the members of the House, we can do a better job delivering the message of what DOGE and President Trump are up to on that front.’

Fitzgerald added that he anticipated some ‘tough questions about the specifics’ of how much DOGE is saving.

Musk has descended on Capitol Hill at a time when his work with the federal government is drawing somewhat mixed reviews from Republican lawmakers.

The vast majority of Republicans are backing Musk’s DOGE effort, and virtually all have agreed on the need to cut wasteful government spending.

‘He’s found a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse. He thinks it’ll be upwards of $1 trillion next year,’ House GOP Policy Chair Kevin Hern, R-Okla., the No. 5 House GOP leader, told Fox News Digital. ‘He’s going to talk to all of us as members, and answer any questions, talk about it.’

But some GOP lawmakers have been frustrated at feeling like they’ve been left out of the loop on White House and DOGE activities. Meanwhile, several Republicans have had to contend with particularly aggressive anti-DOGE protests in their home districts.

Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., a leading pragmatic Republican, said she wanted to ‘better understand what his strategy is.’

Bice commended Musk’s efforts to enact change but acknowledged concerns about the mass layoffs of federal workers across the country.

‘What the American people want to see is change. And I think that Elon is taking a hammer to agencies and then building them back in a way that is more efficient and more functional and less bureaucratic,’ Bice said.

‘But I want to know kind of what that looks like moving forward. I know there’s apprehension for people that may be in that probationary one-year period of having a federal job. We’ve already seen some layoffs, but we’re $36 trillion in debt, and we can’t continue doing the same things over.’

Freshman Rep. Derek Schmidt, R-Kan., said he hoped for a productive dialogue.

‘I think that it’s important that Mr. Musk remind folks of why he is doing what he’s doing. It’s part of the president’s agenda that the American people voted for in November, getting a more accountable… more modernized government,’ Schmidt told Fox News Digital.

‘I think it’s also important [that] communication flow the other way, and that any particular concerns that have a solid basis be relayed back so they can decide to make some adjustments.’

Musk met with Senate Republicans on Wednesday afternoon just before his huddle with the House GOP.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended U.S. efforts to negotiate with Hamas to release American hostages during a briefing on Wednesday.

There are currently five hostages with U.S. citizenship in Gaza, though most are feared dead. 

During the news conference, Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Leavitt how the plans to negotiate fall in line with the long-standing policy not to negotiate with terrorists.

‘If the U.S. has a long-standing policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists, then why is the U.S. now negotiating directly and for the first time ever with Hamas?’ Doocy asked.

‘Well, when it comes to the negotiations that you’re referring to, first of all, the special envoy who’s engaged in these negotiations does have the authority to talk to anyone,’ Leavitt responded.

She added that Israel was ‘consulted on this matter,’ and that President Donald Trump believes in putting forth ‘good faith effort[s] to do what’s right for the American people.’

‘Is it just about the hostages, or are they also talking about the president’s plan to take over?’ Doocy asked.

‘These are ongoing talks and discussions. I’m not going to detail them here,’ Leavitt said. ‘There are American lives at stake. I would refer you to the Department of State, for further details, but I’m not going to get into those talks here at this point.’

In response to Leavitt’s statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement reading: ‘In talks with the United States, Israel expressed its view on direct talks with Hamas.’

The latest comments come as the next stage of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appears uncertain.  The White House has signaled support for the Israeli government’s criticism of Hamas officials, including recently backing the decision to block aid to Gaza until Hamas leaders agree to a ceasefire extension. 

In a statement obtained by Fox News on Sunday, National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said Israel has ‘negotiated in good faith since the beginning of this administration to ensure the release of hostages held captive by Hamas terrorists.’

‘We will support their decision on next steps given Hamas has indicated it’s no longer interested in a negotiated ceasefire,’ Hughes added.

Fox News’ Yonat Friling contributed to this report.

A resolution to reprimand Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, survived a procedural hurdle late Wednesday afternoon, teeing the measure up for a House-wide vote.

Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., introduced a censure resolution against the Texas Democrat earlier in the day amid widespread GOP anger at Democrats who protested President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday.

Democrats pushed for a vote to table the resolution, which would have effectively killed it. But it failed to pass, and a vote on the measure itself is expected sometime this week.

Fox News Digital was told that Newhouse had been in contact with House GOP leadership about his resolution since Trump’s speech ended last night.

There had been multiple resolutions circulating among House Republicans to censure Green for interrupting Trump’s speech, but Newhouse’s appears to be the measure with House GOP leaders’ blessing.

‘I believe it is the first one out of the gate,’ Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, told reporters on Wednesday morning. ‘I think [Green’s protest is] unprecedented. Certainly in the modern era. It wasn’t an excited utterance. It was a, you know, planned, prolonged protest.’

The 77-year-old Democrat was removed from Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night after repeatedly disrupting the beginning of the president’s speech.

He shouted, ‘You have no mandate,’ at Trump as he touted Republican victories in the House, Senate and White House.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had Green removed by the U.S. Sergeant-At-Arms.

Green remained defiant when he stopped to speak with the White House press pool on the first floor of the U.S. Capitol after being thrown out of the second floor House chamber, where Trump was speaking.

‘I’m willing to suffer whatever punishment is available to me. I didn’t say to anyone, don’t punish me. I’ve said I’ll accept the punishment,’ Green said, according to the White House press pool report. ‘But it’s worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president’s desire to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.’

In addition to Newhouse’s resolution, Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, has his own measure with more than 30 House GOP co-sponsors.

The House Freedom Caucus is backing a third censure resolution being led by Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz. 

President Donald Trump issued a stern warning to Hamas in a Truth Social post Wednesday, calling for the terrorist group to release all hostages immediately.

The post came after Trump met with several former Hamas hostages who traveled to Washington, D.C., this week. The group included Eli Sharabi, Doron Steinbrecher, Keith Siegel, Aviva Siegel, Naama Levy, Omer Shem Tov, Iair Horn and Noa Argamani, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

‘‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye – You can choose,’ the president’s post began. ‘Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you.

‘Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted!’

Trump added that he is ‘sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job,’ and that ‘not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.

‘I have just met with your former Hostages whose lives you have destroyed,’ Trump added. ‘This is your last warning! For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance.’

‘Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!’

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., an unflinching supporter of Israel, offered his approval of Trump’s post.

‘Free all the hostages or start killing Hamas members again. I fully agree with @POTUS,’ Fetterman posted on X. 

Trump’s post came hours after the White House was challenged by Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy on its decision to negotiate with the Palestinian terrorist group.

‘If the U.S. has a long-standing policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists, then why is the U.S. now negotiating directly and for the first time ever with Hamas?’ Doocy asked.

‘Well, when it comes to the negotiations that you’re referring to, first of all, the special envoy who’s engaged in these negotiations does have the authority to talk to anyone,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded.

Leavitt added that Israel was ‘consulted on this matter,’ and that Trump believes in putting forth ‘good-faith effort[s] to do what’s right for the American people.’

‘These are ongoing talks and discussions. I’m not going to detail them here,’ she continued. ‘There are American lives at stake.’

Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.

January Littlejohn, a mother and one of President Donald Trump’s guests at his address to Congress on Tuesday night, shared a special message to the president in an interview with Fox News Digital.

During his address, Trump recognized Littlejohn and thanked her for advocating against transgender ideology, which he called a ‘form of child abuse.’

‘My administration is also working to protect our children from toxic ideologies in our schools,’ said Trump. ‘A few years ago, January Littlejohn and her husband discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their 13-year-old little girl. Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging her daughter to use a new name and pronouns, they-them pronouns actually, all without telling January.’

Trump touted his recent signing of an executive order that he said bans public schools from ‘indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology.’ 

During his address, the president urged Congress to pass a bill ‘permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body.’

‘This is a big lie and our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you,’ said Trump. 

Littlejohn told Fox News Digital that she was ‘extremely grateful’ to the president but that the fight is far from over.

Regarding Trump, Littlejohn said, ‘I would just like to thank him and continue to speak truth that there are two sexes, male or female, and no matter what one does to their body, that can never change. Sex is binary.’

‘It’s really important that parents understand how destructive in nature social transition of children is,’ she said. ‘It’s the first step toward medical intervention, and it makes the child less likely to desist.’

She explained her daughter as a 13-year-old in middle school and some friends became fixated on their gender identity.

‘The school took it upon themselves to intervene and socially transition my child. And this goes way beyond name and pronouns. They sit the child down, and in our case it was behind closed doors with three adults that consisted of the school counselor, the assistant principal and a social worker I had never met, and they did an official ‘gender support plan.’’

Littlejohn said that in this session, the school staff asked her daughter what bathroom and locker rooms she wanted to use, which sex she wanted to room with during overnight trips and whether she wanted her parents to be notified or not.

‘They put the burden on her as to whether or not my parental rights would be honored by deciding she was the sole decision maker as to whether or not my husband and I would be notified of the meeting,’ she explained.

Littlejohn said that when she made inquiries about the session to the school she was told ‘they could not give me any information about that meeting’ and ‘that my daughter was now protected by a nondiscrimination law.’

Today, Littlejohn says her daughter has worked through her gender confusion. But she said the school’s actions created a ‘huge wedge between us and our daughter’ that ‘took many years to repair.’

‘If you give these children the gift of time, if you allow them to go through their natural puberty, the vast majority of these kids will resolve their distress naturally, just like my daughter did,’ she said. ‘My daughter is a shining example of that, although she still does grieve the time that she lost, years that she lost, dedicated to the lie of this ideology to become something that she could never become. So that part is really tragic.’

Despite all this, Littlejohn said she was ‘humbled and honored’ to be invited to attend the address as the president’s guest.

‘I felt the weight of not just representing my family and what we’ve been through but of all families who have been harmed by this gender identity ideology,’ she said. ‘And it’s still happening. I get phone calls weekly from parents whose children are being seduced by the false idea that they were born in the wrong body.’ 

Though she said the experience left her feeling ‘filled with such hope,’ she said, ‘executive orders alone will not change this, because this ideology has infected every institution, including our schools.’

‘There are still 21,000 school districts across our country that have these secret social transition plans. And it’s really sad … because these children, this identity crisis is being forced on them. It’s creating confusion where no previous confusion would have existed,’ she said. ‘But the bottom line is, is we have truth and reality on our side. And I’m very grateful that we are moving in the right direction.’