Now that he’s done spearheading the evidence-free impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., feels like his work is done. The third-term congressman announced Wednesday that he’ll not run for re-election in the fall, thereby continuing an exodus of senior Republicans from the House.
“Today, with the House having passed H.R. 2 and Secretary Mayorkas impeached, it is time for me to return home,” he said in a statement, referring to the House GOP’s harsh border security bill. But it’s not just his undeserved sense of accomplishment that’s compelling Green to leave. Green told Axios on Wednesday, “This place is so broken, and making a difference here is just you know, just it feels like a lot of something for nothing.”
It’s a true enough sentiment. But such a complaint is especially rich coming from Green given that it’s his party — his allies among the Freedom Caucus, in particular — that broke Congress so horribly. Since Republicans claimed a narrow majority in January 2023, the House’s course has been anything but smooth sailing. Between the near-constant crises and abysmally low number of bills that have become law, Congress has been struggling.
Such a complaint is especially rich coming from Green given that it’s his party — his allies among the Freedom Caucus, in particular — that broke Congress so horribly.
Green first won the committee’s gavel only at the start of the current Congress last year in a race with several other challengers. That he’s already giving it up would have been unthinkable a generation ago, when committee chairs clung to their fiefdoms for as long as possible. But he joins three other chairs of powerful committees in declining to run again this fall: Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., who leads the Financial Services Committee; Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee; and Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, the head of the Appropriations Committee. (Granger is the only one who would be unable to keep her gavel if re-elected under the Republican conference’s internal rules.)
On one hand, this willingness to step down can be seen as a lingering effect of last century’s consolidation of power in the speakership and away from the once all-powerful chairs. Most major pieces of legislation in recent years have been the result of top-down negotiations among congressional leaders that rank-and-file members are then expected to support. It’s one of the most salient complaints that conservative Republicans have had about how the way the House is run should change.
But the chaos that has paralyzed Congress is due in much greater part to members of Green’s Freedom Caucus. A functioning Congress has never been the far right’s overriding interest. Republicans have spent decades now training their base to be skeptical of the federal government and to believe that compromise is an inherent weakness. Starting with the conservative takeover of the House in the 1994 election, continuing through the rise of the tea party in the early 2010s and into the rise of the MAGA movement, GOP politicians are constantly under threat of losing their seats to people even more anti-establishment. Only total policy victory and political dominance are seen as ideologically pure enough to prevent primary challenges. Aside from Green, the resigning chairs represent a vestige of previous generation of House Republicans who believed passing even incremental conservative policies into law was a win. Today, MAGA-aligned chairs like Judiciary’s Jim Jordan of Ohio and Oversight’s Jim Comer of Kentucky understand that running a committee is mostly about the freedom and power to pull spotlight-grabbing stunts. Passing laws falls by the wayside when the focus is telling a captive audience that you’re this close to proving the conspiracy theory du jour. Passing laws falls by the wayside when the focus is telling a captive audience that you’re this close to proving the conspiracy theory du jour. Green himself has more often than not attempted to stand in the way of the House’s doing its job. He has voted against all the recent short-term funding bills that have kept the federal government from shutting down. He came out hard against the Senate’s proposed border security deal — after being one of the loudest voices insisting that new measures are needed to secure the border. And his most lasting legacy, aside from baselessly impeaching Mayorkas, is as the shepherd of an immigration bill that will never become law, as he has shown no interest in working with Democrats on a solution. Instead, he would clearly prefer keeping the border as an election-year talking point — even if his name won’t be appearing on the ballot. My colleague Steve Benen wrote Thursday that he believes that Republicans are racing out the door “because members are worried about staying in an institution that appears incapable of working under Republican control.” I think Green’s exit says more about those Freedom Caucus members who are opting to stay. While he may have taken his tolerance for nonsense as far as the halls of Congress will allow, there are plenty of others who are more than happy to keep whacking at Congress with a sledgehammer and complain that it’s broken.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on politics and policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House. 
