For all the media attention lavished upon the Mike Johnson–Marjorie Taylor Greene drama, the true source of the chaos that has engulfed House Republicans might be H-312, a cramped, fluorescent-lit hearing room near the top of the Capitol Building. That’s the meeting place of the House Rules Committee, the occasionally stupor-inducing assembly that determines the parliamentary procedures under which laws are actually passed. It is also, technically, one of the most powerful committees in Washington—which is why hardliners Chip Roy and Ralph Norman, aided by Thomas Massie, were more than happy to accept the posting, back in January 2023, in exchange for their votes to elevate Kevin McCarthy to speaker. “I thought it was a punishment,” a senior G.O.P. advisor told me. “I thought they’d cornered themselves and that they’d bore themselves to death.”