Kevin McCarthy told Republicans he has struck a deal in the ongoing speaker battle with Representative Chip Roy, a Texas conservative who moderates hope can bring 10 people into McCarthy’s camp, a person familiar with the negotiations said.
(Bloomberg) — Kevin McCarthy told Republicans he has struck a deal in the ongoing speaker battle with Representative Chip Roy, a Texas conservative who moderates hope can bring 10 people into McCarthy’s camp, a person familiar with the negotiations said.
The embattled California Republican made the announcement at the beginning of a potentially pivotal conference call Friday morning as the fractious caucus enters its fourth day of an increasingly bitter public feud over whether McCarthy will claim the speakership. Roy, however, immediately took to Twitter to dispute there is a deal.
The specifics of a deal aren’t yet known, but McCarthy’s allies have hoped Roy could use his influence to bring 10 or 11 other Republicans into McCarthy’s camp. That brings McCarthy closer to the speakership, but doesn’t give him the majority.
The mixed messages underscore the chaotic nature of negotiations over the last four days of gridlock.
Roy has been angling to open up floor procedures to amendment votes, forbidding giant packages of bills and to guarantee conservatives have more seats on key committees — all points of contention with moderates in the party. McCarthy during the call said that bills would still go through committees and that he had not given away committee gavels to reach the accord.
McCarthy’s fate remains uncertain heading into the weekend even as he gives in to the demands made by hard-line conservatives in exchange for their votes. Party moderates, considered McCarthy’s strongest base of support, are growing increasingly frustrated with the concessions, which they fear will give dissidents out-sized influence.
McCarthy is expected to present Republicans a framework for a deal during the call, but even he suggested he doesn’t expect the matter to be resolved before the weekend.
“I don’t know if we will get there today but we are going to make progress,” McCarthy told reporters shortly before the call started.
McCarthy is hoping that afternoon votes on the floor show he has peeled off at least some of the GOP defectors. He noted his overall tally may be lower because some supporters may have left town due to family issues.
One emerging part of McCarthy’s deal with dissidents is to hold defense spending at fiscal 2022 levels, people familiar with the negotiations said. That threatens to spur an uprising among defense hawks in the caucus, who regularly push for large increases to defense spending and who have so far backed McCarthy.
Senior members of the Appropriations Committee have also balked at suggestions that McCarthy opponents be given plum committee assignments they have not earned via seniority. And they are fighting attempts to block earmarks for lawmakers’ pet projects.
After three days of voting, 20 Republicans held firm in their opposition to McCarthy, more than enough to deny him the majority he needs.
Electing a speaker is the first order of business for House members, and they can do nothing else until that’s done except adjourn.
“With a narrow, four-seat majority, it is essential we hit the ground running and quickly execute our Commitment to America,” Arkansas Republican Steve Womack said in a statement. “A chamber full of representatives who have yet to take their oaths of office – it’s hard to wrap one’s head around it.”
McCarthy’s back-to-back losses marked a post-Civil War record for the number of ballots needed to select a speaker. In 1923, Frederick Gillett, a Massachusetts Republican, was elected to the post after nine ballots. The last multi-ballot speaker vote before that was in 1859, when 44 votes were needed.
Only six other speaker elections have taken more than 10 ballots.
–With assistance from Laura Davison, Mike Dorning and Jennifer Jacobs.
(Updates starting in second paragraph.)
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