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Several House Republican members of the Freedom Caucus have vowed to block key legislation from moving to the floor for a vote in protest of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s deal with the Biden White House on raising the debt ceiling last month.
The conservatives blocked bills from reaching the floor on Tuesday and pledged to continue doing so after a dozen voted with all Democrats to defeat a GOP rule to bring four measures, related to gas stoves and regulatory reform, up for a full vote.
The 220-206 vote marks the first time a House rule has failed to pass since 2002, the New York Post reported.
“Today, we took down the rule because we’re frustrated at the way this place is operating,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told reporters after the vote.
“We took a stand in January to end the era of the imperial speakership. We’re concerned that the fundamental commitments that allowed Kevin McCarthy to assume the speakership have been violated as a consequence of the debt limit deal,” he added.
The Post reported that lawmakers who joined Gaetz included Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Bob Good (R-Va.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), and Chip Roy (R-Texas).
“We warned them not to cut that deal without coming down and sit down and talk to us. So this is all about restoring a process that will fundamentally change things back to what was working,” Roy, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said Tuesday.
A member of the Rules Committee, Roy voted on Monday to advance it to the full House.
The Post noted that at the last moment, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) voted “no” on the rule so he could be in a position to bring it up again for a future vote.
These House Republicans just BLEW UP Kevin McCarthy’s rule & humiliated him on the House floor.
Disastrous debt ceiling deals have consequences… pic.twitter.com/5j1jQ49uHi
— Citizens for Renewing America (@amrenewcitizen) June 6, 2023
Group of 11 conservative House members take rare step of joining all Democrats to block a pair of GOP bills to protect gas stoves to express their anger over the debt deal cut by Speaker McCarthy and President Biden. https://t.co/ASp9GgAU6L
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 6, 2023
The Post added:
Two of the stalled bills would limit the ability of the federal government to regulate or ban gas stoves. A third seeks to authorize federal courts that review agency actions to decide all relevant questions of law without deferring to previous legal determinations by the agency. And the fourth bill would subject major agency actions to congressional approval.
On Saturday, Biden signed legislation that raises the national debt ceiling by another $4 trillion two days before the government was predicted to run out of cash to pay its bills.
The bill signing capped weeks of high-stakes drama on Capitol Hill as negotiators for McCarthy and the White House furiously wrestled with ways to raise the nation’s borrowing limit and cut spending while satisfying members of both parties.
All told, however, McCarthy’s future as Speaker may be in jeopardy.
“I think he should be concerned” about a motion to vacate the chair, Rep. Kin Buck told CNN’s Jim Sciutto last week.
“I’m not suggesting the votes are there to remove the speaker, but the speaker promised that we would operate at 2022 appropriations levels when he got the support to be the speaker. He’s now changed that to 2023 levels plus one percent,” Buck added, according to The Daily Caller.
According to The American Conservative, “Some representatives have gone so far as to float the idea of using the vacate motion to try and remove McCarthy as speaker if this deal manages to go through. GOP sources told TAC that if someone were to move forward with a motion to vacate the chair, there would likely be enough votes to reignite the fight over Speaker of the House.”
Roy and Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) have floated the idea of removing McCarthy as well, in addition to Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.). During an appearance on the “War Room” podcast a week ago, she accused McCarthy of a “violation” of his promise to allow amendments in the House Rules Committee.
