Global Courant
WASHINGTON — Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., struck a temporary deal Monday with a gang of 11 conservative rebels, ending a nearly week-long blockade of the House floor and paving the way for votes this week on a handful of GOP message bills.
The deal was announced after a meeting between McCarthy and some of the rioters who last week voted no with Democrats to a rules vote — a rare move that prevented a package of GOP bills from hitting the floor and prompted leaders to challenge lawmakers. send home for a week.
Representative Ralph Norman, RS.C., emerging from McCarthy’s office on Monday, confirmed that the Gang of 11 would now vote yes to a new rule that will allow the message bill package — two to protect gas stoves, another regulatory law and a fourth to protect gun stabilization brackets – to be floored later this week. None of the bills are likely to make it through the Senate.
“We aired our issues. We want to see this movement as a body,” said Norman, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus.
“The floor will function this week,” added Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., one of the conservative leaders.
But Norman, Gaetz and others said the group is still concerned about the debt ceiling deal McCarthy struck with President Joe Biden and warned they could cough up other GOP bills if spending isn’t cut further in the coming months. credit process.
“We are concerned about the economic security of this country. And we will work for that,” Norman continued. “If we don’t have that, there will be battles. There are many more fights on the way.”
Other conservatives said there are also ongoing talks with McCarthy about how to rebuild trust between the speaker, his leadership team and conservatives.
“There is a bigger discussion about how we can rebuild the conservative coalition within the Republican Party so that we can restore the unity we had before the debt limit increase,” said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., one of 11 who voted against last week’s rule.
Gaetz, a fierce McCarthy critic, said the “power-sharing deal” McCarthy negotiated with conservatives to win the gavel in January needs to be renegotiated.
“He understood that and we understood that,” Gaetz added, “and it needs to be renegotiated in a way that what happened in this debt limit vote would never happen again, where the House conservatives would be left as the less desirable coalition partner than Democrats.”
“If a power-sharing agreement isn’t renegotiated,” Gaetz warned, “we might be back here next week.”
Kyle Stewart contributed.
