Zach Barnes: Executive director, House Freedom Caucus

Zach Barnes says that working with members of the House Freedom Caucus — the hard-line conservative group famous for confronting Republican leadership and instigating procedural and floor fights — makes him joke about how Congress must have operated a century ago.

“Members of Congress didn’t have 15 to 18 full-time staff in D.C., in their districts. They had maybe one administrative assistant,” Barnes said. “A lot of the Freedom Caucus members are sharp, know the procedure, spend a lot of time working on it. I think they’d be just as effective 100 years ago as they are now.”

Not only do many of the group’s members know and talk to the House parliamentarian, they also have deep knowledge of policy and talk to subject matter experts themselves.

That dynamic means Barnes isn’t so much guiding the group as its executive director, but rather ensuring its members have everything necessary to execute their plan.

“It’s incumbent upon me that I’ve got to overperform, and I’ve got to work with all their staffs and make sure we’re all overperforming,” Barnes said.

He follows up with leadership staff and committee staff, makes sure he has not only the top line from a meeting but also supporting material, and makes that information usable for all the members of the caucus — all in hopes of advancing shared goals for Republicans as a whole.

This year, one of the biggest policy fights for the House Freedom Caucus has been over reauthorization of foreign spy powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), with members pushing for reforms to better protect Americans’ privacy. Barnes was integral to the caucus spearheading that FISA push.

The Freedom Caucus members eventually got the White House and House Republican leadership to abandon their push for a “clean” reauthorization without reforms. The House passed a compromise, but the fight led to FISA lapsing for the first time ever. Freedom Caucus members note, though, that current certifications authorized by the FISA court continue into next year.

“They’re able to take a sober look. They’re able to point their colleagues toward the facts of the law. The members’ goal is to balance the national security priorities with protecting the privacy rights of Americans,” Barnes said. “My job is to help them organize, help them take the hill, make sure everybody’s operating off of the facts of the law.”