DORAL, Fla. — Vice President JD Vance urged Republicans to stick together during a closed-door meeting at the House GOP annual issues conference on Tuesday, as tensions simmer over some lawmakers’ decisions to skip the multi-day event.

House Republicans are at President Donald Trump’s golf course and resort in Doral, Florida, for three days of discussions on how to execute his legislative agenda. 

Vance addressed the gathering on Tuesday in a speech that acknowledged the differences of opinion across the Republican conference, while imploring them to find a way to overcome those divisions and ‘be good’ to one another, two lawmakers in the room told Fox News Digital.

Those fractures flared up a short while later, however, when two lawmakers stood up to criticize colleagues who were not attending the event during the question and answer portion of Vance’s appearance, two other sources said.

It comes after Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, posted on X that he was not attending the retreat, arguing it was a waste of time.

‘It is being reported I am not at the so-called Republican retreat in Florida. I am not,’ Roy wrote. ‘I am in Texas, with my family & meeting with constituents, rather than spending $2K to hear more excuses for increasing deficits & not being in DC to deliver Trump’s border security [funding] ASAP.’

Roy told Fox News that he could not speak for fellow members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus who were missing from the retreat, adding, ‘We all have things that we’ve got to deal with.’

‘If you’re asking me to go spend money to go sit in a resort rather than doing our damn job… no, I’m not going to do that,’ he said.

Others argued that Roy and others’ absence was actively undermining attempts to unify behind a legislative roadmap.

‘Sadly enough, we have people sitting at home complaining about the meeting on Twitter, and they’re the ones who’d rather complain, attack, argue, than be part of the solution,’ Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital. ‘We know who they are. We just have to deal with it.’

With a razor-thin margin in the House, Republicans must vote in virtual lockstep to pass any legislation without Democratic support.

One lawmaker said Vance embraced a ‘team message’ during his speech and ‘recognizes there will be differences, but we must come together once debate is over.’

Vance also told Republicans that Trump wants to raise the debt limit, something he will have to contend with this year, without support from or leverage by Democrats, Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., told reporters after the meeting. 

Other Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital while leaving the event also embraced the Ohio Republican’s message and him as a messenger.

‘He’s saying the things about fiscal sanity that we need to hear,’ Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, said.

‘He’s smart as hell, he’s eloquent,’ Murphy said. ‘Trump really nailed it on that one – he was a great pick.’

The Trump administration is offering buyouts for nearly all federal employees, including those who work remotely, as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to get employees back into the office, but they only have until Feb. 6 to opt-in.

During Trump’s first week in office, he issued several directives to the federal workforce, including a requirement that remote employees must return to in-person work.

‘After four years of incompetence and failure, President Donald Trump is committed to making our government efficient and productive again,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Tuesday. ‘American taxpayers pay for the salaries of federal government employees and therefore deserve employees working on their behalf who actually show up to work in our wonderful federal buildings, also paid for by taxpayers.

‘If they don’t want to work in the office and contribute to making America great again, then they are free to choose a different line of work, and the Trump Administration will provide a very generous payout of eight months,’ she added.

On Tuesday, a government-wide email was sent out to ensure all federal workers were on board with the Trump administration’s plan.

The email pointed to four pillars that Trump set forth, to bring accountability back to the federal government, including a return to in-person work, restored accountability for employees who have policy-making authority, restored accountability for senior executives, and a reformed federal hiring process based on merit.

‘The government-wide email being sent today is to make sure that all federal workers are on board with the new administration’s plan to have federal employees in office and adhering to higher standards,’ a senior administration official said. ‘We’re five years past COVID and just 6 percent of federal employees work full-time in office. That is unacceptable.’

The email noted that the majority of federal employees who have worked remotely since COVID will be required to return to their physical offices five days a week.

‘Going forward, we also expect our physical offices to undergo meaningful consolidation and divestitures, potentially resulting in physical office relocations for a number of federal workers,’ the email read.

For those who returned to office, the Trump administration thanked them for their ‘renewed focus’ on serving the American people. But the future of their position could not be guaranteed, according to the email.

For those who do not want to continue in their role with the federal workforce, the Trump administration thanked them for their services, informing them they will be provided with a ‘dignified, fair departure from the federal government utilizing a deferred resignation program.’

The program begins on Jan. 28 and will be available until Feb. 6, and should a federal employee choose to resign under the program, they will retain all pay and benefits, regardless of workload, and will be exempt from their in-person work requirements until Sep. 30, 2025.

The buyouts do not apply to military personnel of the armed forces, the U.S. Postal Services, positions related to immigration enforcement and national security, and any other positions specifically excluded by the agency the federal workers are employed by.

‘To be clear, as it was with President Trump’s executive order on Day One, implementation of return-to-work policies will be done by each individual agency in accordance with applicable law,’ the senior administration official said. ‘We expect 5 to 10 percent of federal employees to quit, and it could lead to $100 billion annually in savings for federal taxpayers.’

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Acting Director Matthew Memoli sought to clarify the extent of the Trump administration’s freeze on communications and other functions within the Health and Human Services Department, which has raised concern among agency officials and lawmakers.

Memoli’s memo, sent Monday to leaders across the NIH’s more than two dozen centers and institutions, said the freeze had been issued to ‘allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization,’ but noted that due to ‘confusion on the scope of the pause’ he wanted to provide additional guidance.

The internal memo was first reported by STAT News .The NIH did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 

Last week, the new Trump administration abruptly paused external communications at HHS through the first of next month. In addition to halting announcements, press releases, website and social media posts, new guidance, and new regulations, the freeze also halted public appearances and travel by agency officials, and prohibited new purchases or service requests related to agency work.

The move caused anger and confusion among both HHS officials and those in the broader medical community. Following the directive, scientific meetings and grant reviews were canceled, raising significant concerns about the impact on research.

‘We write to express our grave concerns about actions that have taken place in recent days that potentially disrupt lifesaving research being conducted and supported by the National Institutes of Health,’ a trio of Democratic lawmakers from Maryland said in a Monday letter to HHS’s Acting Secretary Dr. Dorothy Fink. ‘Without quick corrective action, the consequences of further disruption could be disastrous.’

According to Memoli’s memo, while agency officials are not permitted to begin new research while the pause is in effect, any research or clinical trials initiated before Jan. 20 can keep going ‘so that this work can continue, and we do not lose our investment in these studies.’ Officials working on these studies may also purchase any ‘necessary supplies’ and conduct meetings related to such work. Although new research projects are still prohibited, NIH staff can continue submitting papers to medical journals and can communicate with those journals about submitted work.

The freeze on purchases was further clarified by Memoli’s memo, which indicated that while the pause remains, purchases ‘directly related to human safety, human or animal healthcare, security, biosafety, biosecurity, or IT security,’ can continue. Travel and hiring for such work can continue as well, Memoli indicated, but his office must grant specific exemptions for new hires as President Donald Trump also initiated a freeze on the hiring of new federal civilian employees across all agencies during his first week in office.

Routine travel planned for after Feb. 1 ‘does not need to be canceled at this time,’ Memoli added. Patients receiving treatment at NIH facilities can also continue to do so.

Meanwhile, external communications will continue to be prohibited except for ‘announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical.’ On Monday, amid the freeze, Fink announced that HHS would begin evaluating its current practices to ensure they meet federal requirements under the Hyde Amendment, a law prohibiting the use of federal funds for non-medically necessary, elective abortions.  

One subject area that was notably absent from Memoli’s memo to federal health leaders was clarifications around grant review meetings. However, the acting director’s memo concluded by indicating that further guidance is expected to be made available later this week.

While the pause at HHS has caused a firestorm of concern and criticism, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who is now the dean of the University of Nebraska’s school of public health, Dr. Ali Khan, told the Associated Press that such pauses are not unusual. Khan said concern is only warranted if the pause was aimed at ‘silencing the agencies around a political narrative.’

‘I think the intention of such a chaotic freezing of communications was to scare us, to demoralize us, and to set science back a bit in an effort to make us look bad,’ said a long-time NIH staffer who spoke to Forbes on the condition of anonymity. ‘We are by no means perfect, but, ffs, our job is literally to enable research to save lives, what the heck?’

Conservatives on social media praised newly minted White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s performance in her first press conference on Tuesday and made the case that her tenure would be a welcome change from the previous administration’s.

Leavitt stepped to the White House pressroom podium on Tuesday and answered questions from more than a dozen reporters with various political affiliations and spoke for almost an hour on Tuesday.

As Leavitt addressed the media, conservatives on social media reacted with positive reviews of her handling of the questions and the variety of reporters she called on. 

‘Karoline Leavitt is a rock star,’ actor James Woods posted on X. ‘These next four years are going to be sublime.’

‘Well @karolineleavitt is certainly up for the job,’ Fox News contributor Joey Jones posted on X. ‘Impressive, but not surprising.’

‘Both KJP and Jen Psaki were extremely dependent on their oversized binders jam-packed with scripted talking points,’ talk show host Addison Smith posted on X. ‘Today, @karolineleavitt took to the podium for the first time with a couple sheets of paper that she barely even glanced at. Competence is back.’

‘Damn White House press secretary @karolineleavitt absolutely smoking left wing reporters,’ Outkick founder and radio host Clay Travis posted on X.

‘This Press Secretary – Karoline Leavitt – is so refreshingly clear in the positions she articulates,’ Rush Limbaugh’s longtime friend and producer, James Golden, posted on X. ‘No dancing around facts, no avoidance of questions, in contrast to the previous Press Secretary.’

‘Karoline Leavitt is 30 minutes into a Press Briefing and she hasn’t looked up a single answer yet,’ Fox News contributor and comedian Jimmy Faila posted on X. ‘KJP would have gone through three binders and a Magic 8 Ball by now. THIS is why people wanna ditch DEI for Meritocracy.’

‘How refreshing to have a Press Sec at the podium who can answer questions directly and without reading word for word from a script,’ Coign Vice President Cassie Smedile Docksey posted on X. ‘We are so back.’

Leavitt, 27, is the youngest press secretary in the nation’s history, surpassing President Richard Nixon’s press secretary, Ron Ziegler, who was 29 when he took the same position in 1969. Leavitt was a fierce defender of Trump throughout his campaign against former Vice President Kamala Harris and also made her own political mark with a congressional run in 2022. 

Leavitt served in Trump’s first administration as assistant press secretary before working as New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s communications director after the 2020 election. She launched a congressional campaign in her home state of New Hampshire during the 2022 cycle, winning her primary but losing the election to a Democrat. 

Leavitt picked up the torch of press secretary from the Biden administration’s chief spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre. 

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.