House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told Senate Republicans at a luncheon on Dec. 21 that they should have faith in him to lead the House Republican majority in the next Congress,
according to The Hill.
“It was a unifying message, he talked about how we need to work better together than we have in the past,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) told reporters after the meeting.
However, one GOP senator said McCarthy “acknowledged it’s going to be hard” to run the lower chamber of Congress with only a slim five-seat majority, according to the outlet.
McCarthy’s meeting with GOP senators came at a time when he is facing challenges to secure the needed votes to become the next House speaker. With Republicans projected to hold a 222 to 212 majority when a floor vote takes place in January, he could only lose a few Republican votes to secure the 218 votes he needs to be elected speaker.
Last week, McCarthy
said he had been communicating with five lawmakers who wouldn’t support him, namely Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz), Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), Bob Good (R-Va.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). However, McCarthy said, “they have not moved.”
Biggs is challenging McCarthy for speaker. House Republicans
nominated McCarthy as speaker in November, after he won 188–31 against Biggs. On Dec. 6, the Arizona Republican
announced that he will challenge McCarthy in the public vote on the House floor in January, saying he wanted to “break the establishment.”
In November, McCarthy
promised that as speaker he will “take action to fix what Nancy Pelosi so badly broke” and stop the “Biden agenda.”
According to The Hill, McCarthy was invited to the lunch by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who is the chairman of the Senate Republican Steering Committee.
Also on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voiced his support for McCarthy’s bid to become House speaker, when asked by a reporter.
“Absolutely. I’m pulling for Kevin. I hope he makes it,” McConnell
said.
Omnibus Bill
The luncheon came just before the Senate was supposed to advance the
$1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill. However, negotiations
hit an impasse after senators couldn’t agree on an amendment proposed by Lee, which would extend the COVID-19 pandemic-era
Title 42 border policy.
McCarthy is opposed to the spending package.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said McCarthy made a courteous and diplomatic pitch to GOP senators not to send another omnibus spending bill to the House just before a looming government funding deadline, according to the outlet.
McCarthy has
accused Democrats of waiting until the last minute to “jam” through an omnibus spending bill.
“The Democrats have been in power, they have had the House, the Senate, and the presidency, but they did not do their work and they should not jam us now,” McCarthy said on Dec. 14.
He repeated his criticism days later while writing on Twitter.
“Democrats in Washington know they are about to lose one-party rule in 17 days. That’s why they are rushing to jam through a massive spending blowout before Christmas—and they’re hoping you’ll be too distracted with the holidays to even notice,” McCarthy
wrote. “We won’t stop fighting for you!”
On Dec. 20, he
endorsed a letter from 10 House Republicans and three GOP members of Congress-elect. They
wrote that they “will oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority” championed by Republican senators who vote in favor of the omnibus spending bill.
“Agreed,” McCarthy
wrote on Twitter. ” Except no need to whip—when I’m Speaker, their bills will be dead on arrival in the House if this nearly $2 [trillion] monstrosity is allowed to move forward over our objections and the will of the American people.”
