McCarthy takes speaker perch as GOP stares down new mission: governance

Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) gaveled the House into session Monday for the first time, presiding as Republicans prepared to pass a rules package that will govern the chamber just days after internal conflict brought the House to a standstill in a once-in-a-century clash.

McCarthy and his allies successfully negotiated a deal late last week that put the gavel in his hands. But that cordiality between more moderate Republicans and the hard-right flank of the party will be tested for the first time Monday evening, as several Republicans have objected to the rules package over concerns that McCarthy conceded too much power to conservative holdouts in an effort to win the speakership.

The dragged-out fight to elect McCarthy brought a daunting realization to many Republicans in the conference: Any negotiation over policy and the future of the party is going to be equally as contentious.

Republicans knew that a razor-thin majority could jeopardize finding consensus to enact the fulsome policy agenda they proposed before the midterms. But last week’s drama painted a more realistic picture to House Republicans about how arduous it will be to find consensus moving forward.

“Democracy and governing can be messy,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.). “We’ve got some huge challenges ahead on every front. So trying to find consensus, either as a party or in a bipartisan way, will be the biggest test of leadership that we’ve seen in a long time.”

Moderate Republicans involved in the negotiations last week pushed that there should not be objection to the rules package since it clearly serves as conservative principles that will guide them through the majority.

“This rules package is actually about Republican unity,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), who was part of the negotiations last week. “Every single one of these big conservative wins, Mr. Speaker — and more like them — were supported by Republican conference long before the excitement of last week.”

Republicans were largely united in their defense for the rules package, arguing against Democrats who were trying to label the GOP as disheveled and being ruled by a minority within their conference. From moderates like Johnson to Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.), who was one of the holdouts last week, pushed for adoption of the rules package because it promises the return of power to committees and members the conference was seeing.

While Republicans are publicly arguing their at-times vicious open debate was good for democracy, privately they acknowledge that the ongoing member-on-member clashes could threaten key legislation Congress must-pass, like bills that fund the government and raise the nation’s debt limit. How Republicans handle the internal dynamics and the affect on legislation could set the stage for a brutal 2024 election, as Democrats will almost certainly look to highlight the divisions to voters.

Winning over moderate objectors to the rules package poses a formidable task for the new leadership, who worked through the weekend and Monday arm-twisting the new objectors to vote in favor of the rules package. Republicans can only afford to lose four votes to pass legislation, and leaders will have to continually balance the desires of the disparate factions of the conference.

It’s a scenario they had tried to avoid.

McCarthy and his allies worked aggressively to recruit pragmatic candidates in the midterms who they considered more electable and willing to govern. But that intervention backfired, playing a key role in negotiations last week as Republican holdouts demanded leadership no longer interfere in open primaries as a condition of their voting for McCarthy. The Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC announced they would cease such plans.

Republicans met multiple times over the past few months to finalize a rules package, that initially did not include a motion to vacate the speaker after a majority of the conference rejected lessening the power of the speakership. But as serious negotiations began to unfold among Republicans objecting to supporting McCarthy’s bid, McCarthy announced 48 hours before the first vote that he would change the threshold to allow five members to move to oust him.

After numerous ballots, it became clear that the holdouts would remain if McCarthy and moderates did not drop their objection to restoring the vacate threshold back to one member who could push for a full floor vote to oust the speaker. The rules were then amended to include that provision and released on Friday ahead of the 14th and 15th ballot, which ultimately got McCarthy the speakership.

The new rules also mandate an up-or-down vote on lifting the debt limit so the speaker can’t tuck the debt limit vote into a broader bill. The rules place restrictions on lifting government spending and raising taxes, and ensures bills cover one issue instead of massive, all-encompassing legislation.

“Anything that takes more power out of leadership and gives more ability to rank-and-file members is going to be really good for our conference,” said Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.).

House Republicans will also create a new select subcommittee under the Judiciary Committee that will investigate what they are describing as the weaponization of the federal government. The mandate will be broad and is expected to investigate the Justice Department’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and the indictment of more than 900 people who stormed the Capitol that day. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is both a McCarthy ally and a member of the Freedom Caucus, will chair the committee and has vowed aggressive oversight into the Biden administration.

McCarthy chose Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) as his designee on the steering committee, which decides who runs the committees. The move was a central demand from the members on the right. Donalds is a member of the Freedom Caucus and was nominated by some members on the right to be speaker.

In addition to the rules, McCarthy was cornered into a “gentlemen’s agreement” with the hard-right members that will not be included in the congressional record, but will be watched closely by those members. Those concessions place limits on new spending, including defense spending, which has frustrated some defense hawks.

Republicans who were eager to govern became irate over how the terms of agreements hashed out between McCarthy, his allies, moderates and holdouts could set a precedent of making the House majority ineffective. Republicans privately acknowledge that the backroom dealing can’t become the status quo, worrying that leadership folding to the far right leaves a majority of them out of consideration.

“We spent four days holding up the speaker vote to get one change on the motion to vacate as part of the rules, and now there are rumors of backroom deals cut with a handful of members. If it’s not okay for the far left to cut deals in secret, then why is it okay for a few on the far right to cut deals in secret,” said Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who threatened against voting for the rule but has since declared she would support it.

Several Republicans worried that the rules and the separate agreement would lead to cuts to defense spending, which is what the hard right demanded — along with domestic spending cuts — as part of their focus to curb the national debt.

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.) said he would be voting against the rules package for that reason and concerns over border security legislation that he has previously denounced as dead on arrival since it does not approach immigration reform holistically.

“If this insurgency caucus decides to put anti-immigrant legislation on the floor and mascaraed it as border security policy, that’s not going to fly, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that type of legislation fails on the floor,” Gonzales said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

Once the House passes the rules package, Republicans have said their first vote will be to eliminate funding for 87,000 IRS hires that were authorized in a Democratic-only passed bill last year to deal with IRS backlogs. Ahead of the midterms, when Republicans were projecting a significantly larger majority, lawmakers were expected to introduce energy independence legislation as their first bill, but plans were scrapped after it became clear any big-picture bill would have to be negotiated and approved by all factions

Jacqueline Alemany and Liz Goodwin contributed to this report.