Conservatives in the House have agreed to cease their blockade of the House floor as they engage in discussions with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) regarding future spending and a revised “power-sharing” arrangement.
Last week, a group of 11 hardline conservative lawmakers rebelled against McCarthy by voting against a procedural vote concerning gas stoves—a bill they supported—in protest of his debt limit deal with President Joe Biden. Consequently, all votes were canceled on Wednesday for the rest of the week.
Following discussions with McCarthy on Monday, some conservative lawmakers indicated that the vote impasse had been resolved, allowing the House to proceed while negotiations for further concessions from the speaker continue.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) expressed his inclination to allow the vote to pass, noting that it would be combined with Rep. Andrew Clyde’s (R-Ga.) resolution to reverse a provision on pistol braces implemented by the Biden administration.
Norman said that McCarthy had listened to the concerns of the conservative group and agreed to involve them in future decision-making. However, frustrations over McCarthy’s debt limit compromise remained.
“We aired our issues. We want to see this move forward as a body … there’s a lot of fights down the road that we’d rather be on together,” Norman said.
Further discussions about future spending and appropriations are “a work in progress,” he noted.
Following the meeting, McCarthy stated that there would be no votes on Monday evening, Fox News reported. However, he expressed optimism about the progress made, emphasizing the collective desire to move forward and work together.
“I thought we had a very productive meeting tonight,” he said. “I think everybody’s attitude in the room was, how do we move forward? How do we move forward to where we were with our strength together? And I think there’s a willingness, that doesn’t mean it’s all locked together, it means that we thought that meeting was great … we’ve got a lot more victories for the American people.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) indicated that conservatives would vote in favor of the rules this week as negotiations progress and expressed satisfaction with the recent meeting. However, he said he desired a renegotiation of the power-sharing arrangement established with McCarthy earlier in the year.
“The power-sharing agreement that we entered into in January with McCarthy … it has to be renegotiated, so what happened on this debt ceiling bill never happens again,” he said.
Vote Resumes Tuesday
Although the conservatives are willing to temporarily suspend their opposition to the procedural vote this week, Gaetz warned that they may resume their actions if a renegotiated power-sharing agreement is not reached.“There’ll be more votes next week, and more rules, and if there’s not a renegotiated power-sharing agreement, then perhaps we’ll be back here next week,” Gaetz said.
He stressed that their objective is not to obstruct future votes but to capitalize on the current discussions’ momentum.
While the precise details of the agreement are yet to be finalized, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, acknowledged the existence of a “framework” for an agreement with McCarthy without providing further information.
The temporary resolution by conservatives enables the House to proceed with voting Tuesday on several GOP bills that were previously blocked. These bills encompass a range of topics, including Clyde’s resolution countering the new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rule on pistol braces, along with a gas stoves bill and a measure aimed at curbing the administration’s regulatory powers.
Clyde’s pistol brace bill was at the center of last week’s upset, with the lawmaker claiming that GOP House leaders warned him that it would be challenging to advance the bill if he voted against a procedural motion on the debt limit bill. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) denied that any such threat was made.
The group of conservative lawmakers argues McCarthy made excessive concessions to the Democrats in the debt limit deal, which extended the government’s borrowing authority for a longer period than desired by conservatives, didn’t implement spending cuts the GOP proposed in April, and left out several partisan Republican policy reforms.
They now seek guarantees from McCarthy that he won’t repeat such actions during future battles concerning the farm bill and 2024 government spending.
