Four days, 14 votes, no Speaker of the House. But, with the chamber adjourned for the afternoon, a 15th vote is set for 10 p.m. Friday after 14 of the 20 Republican representatives who’d refused to support Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) tortured bid for the post agreeing to do so—for now.
“I know you’re all wondering what changed the vote,” Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) told reporters in a chaotic gaggle after the House recessed, revealing there is a tentative “framework of an agreement in good faith that allows us to keep moving forward.”
Perry would not elaborate on what that “framework” is, but said the agreement with McCarthy would make Congress a more functional, responsive body.
“Every single one of us has said—and knows just what the American people know—that this place is broken and is operating on behalf of the status quo, which serves this town and not the American people,” he said. “And each one of us made a commitment [to do so]. Because the time is right, to make that change—and we weren’t going to move from that position until the change is made.”
Asked how they’d convince the six holdouts—Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Bob Good (R-Va.) Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.)—to support McCarthy, the newly converted 14 said talks within the Freedom Caucus will continue into the evening.
“I want to be very clear that we’re still having conversations, and we’re still talking to our friends that disagree,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said. “But that at the end of the day, they are patriots who are standing up trying to defend their country. They are people that I love and respect.”
Roy said if it wasn’t for resistance from the remaining six, “no chance we get the agreement that we’re at right now, that we think will change this institution in meaningful ways. And I think that’s important. And we’re going to continue to talk to them. We’re not done yet.”
Without the six additional ballots, McCarthy will not secure the 218 votes needed to secure the Speaker post.
“We’re going to keep having conversations,” Roy said, noting that over the last four days, the holdouts have delivered a “message to Speaker-elect McCarthy” and the tentative agreement “serves as the template by which we’re going to be holding him accountable. And we’re going to be working with our friends who are still on the floor and whose votes are still needed to ensure that we’re going to have a framework that can be rallied around and that will make this place change on behalf of the American people and protect minority rights in what is a majoritarian body.”
The House is “a majoritarian body,” he continued. “But for too long minority rights have been stepped over. Too few people are making too many decisions for the American people in ways that undermine the health and well-being of this institution, the country, and the American people.
“That has a chance to change today,” Roy added. “And that’s why we’re here.”
Spending Cuts Part of the Pact
Among reported components in the tentative agreement with McCarthy are changes in how the House Rules Committee operates and more control in how appropriations are administered.
Perry and Roy would not provide details, nor confirm or deny if spending cuts in the agreement would include the military budget.
“Anytime in this town that anybody talks about checking spending in this town, they immediately start talking about what it’s cutting or not cutting,” Roy said. “That is not a part of this conversation with respect to what is specifically being cut or not cut. What is a part of this conversation is that we must put the brakes on out-of-control spending. And that is very much a part of this military.”
Perry said the agreement focuses on the powers of the House Speaker, noting during her recently concluded tenure, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) removed accountability measures installed by Thomas Jefferson more than 200 years ago.
Other aspects of the agreement with McCarthy relate to “spending and how we allocate the taxpayers money,” he said, calling the revisions “broad changes” that would reflect “conservative representation that represents the face of America, across the entire body, not just not just put (money) in certain pockets.”
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), among alternate Speaker candidates in several votes, said the four days of turmoil on the House floor may have seemed unseemly to some, but it was hardly so, noting “two things have occurred” in public, before voters’ eyes.
“Number one, the American people have witnessed for the first time in this town, and probably for 100 years, if not more, a deliberative process—a legitimate deliberative process—about the future of leadership in the people’s House,” he said. “That is monumental for all of the voters, whether they are Republicans or Democrats, to make sure that the people’s House is working for them.”
The second thing Americans are witnessing is, “We have sent a clear signal to Republicans around the country that there will not be a Democrat Speaker of the House in the 118th Congress.”
The agreement’s “essential details are known,” Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) said. “This framework has a considerable amount of detail. We’ve worked very hard to make sure it is achievable. And it is understood. It’s been an extraordinary pleasure and honor to work with this team of disciplined folks who have had the right objective in front of us the whole time.”
There’s No ‘Secret Deal’
Bishop said despite reluctance to discuss the agreement’s “framework,” there aren’t unknown devils in the details that could derail it.
“When you say ‘framework,’ some people will say, ‘Oh, that sounds like just a bunch of loose promises,’” he said. “Nope. It’s specific.”
There is no “secret deal,” the 14 told reporters, acknowledging the other 204 GOP members can agree or disagree and can vote as they please for House Speaker.
Rep.-elect Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) chastised reporters for trying “to pit people against each other” in insisting there is a “secret deal.”
Not true, she said. “We have been, this entire time, talking to one another. And it’s well been in the works for months,” Luna said. “So what I want you guys to know is that, with all of this happening right now, this is a good-faith effort on behalf of the American people, and they deserve this conversation. They deserve this representation. None of us want to be here right now and get pin-cushioned. We’re doing this because we genuinely understand the offer on the table that’s being worked through. It will be transformational and it will outlast every single person here.”
Roy said negotiations with McCarthy didn’t start this week, but early last month.
“On Dec. 8, a number of the things that we thought were critically important for any Speaker, that has been at the center of these discussions in negotiation” were presented to McCarthy, he said.
Rep.-elect Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) said if the Speaker election seemed broken, that’s no surprise to most Americans.
“For far too long, government has been broken. Democracy isn’t a clean process,” he said. “You got debate, and debate is healthy. Our founding fathers intended for us to communicate, to argue, and to come up with the best outcome. I came here to fight for institutional change. And I’m not leaving. And I’m not stopping until I achieve that.”
Rep.-elect Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) evoked former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s leadership in crafting ‘Contract With America’ with a Democrat in the White House.
“If you look from 1995 to 2000, this body operated much more deliberative. We love the politics of the ‘Contract With America.’ We use it in in looking backwards,” he said, noting 58 percent “of all the bills that that Congress looked at (between 1995-2000), including major pieces of legislation, were open to the average rank-and-file member to put amendments on it. If you want to cut spending, make us deliberative. Give us the ability to legislate, not just vote up and down” which is the way it’s been since 2016.
“That (flexibility) has been taken away from us,” Brecheen said. “This is about restoring power to you — you, the citizen of the United States.”
