Members of the House Freedom Caucus blocked four popular GOP bills from getting a vote Tuesday, sending a very public message of disapproval of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s debt limit deal with President Biden.
A dozen Republican lawmakers voted against the rule to bring the bills to the floor. The legislation they sidelined would have prevented the Biden administration’s efforts to ban gas stoves and give Congress more say over major rules issued by the executive branch — measures with broad support among Republicans.
“We warned them not to cut that [debt] deal without coming down and sit down and talk to us,” Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, said. “So this is all about restoring a process that will fundamentally change things back to what was working.”
House Republican leaders held the rule vote open for nearly an hour while attempting to sway the Freedom Caucus rebels. The rebels refused to budge and the vote was gaveled closed with the motion failing.
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said the decision to block the business of the House came as a result of the heavy-handed tactics of House GOP leaders.
“We’re not going to live in the era of the imperial speaker anymore,” said Mr. Gaetz, a Freedom Caucus ally who voted to block the bills. “We had one of our members threatened.”
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In particular, Mr. Gaetz said Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia had been threatened with retaliation if he voted against the debt limit deal last week.
Mr. Clyde said he was “threatened that if I voted against the closed rule to the debt ceiling agreement, it would be very difficult to bring my pistol stabilizing brace bill to the House floor for a vote.”
Apart from Mr. Roy and Mr. Gaetz, the GOP no-votes came mainly from members of the Freedom Caucus. Voting against the bills were Reps. Dan Bishop of North Carolina; Bob Good of Virginia; Matt Rosendale of Montana; Ralph Norman of South Carolina; Tim Burchett of Tennessee; Lauren Boebert of Colorado; Andy Biggs and Eli Crane, all of Arizona. Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican who is not a member of the Freedom Caucus, also opposed the bill.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalice, Lousiana Republican, switched his vote to no in a procedural move that will allow him to later bring the rule up for another vote.
The lawmakers who crossed party lines to paralyze the business of the House also voted against Mr. McCarthy’s debt limit deal.
Mr. Buck said the move was meant to signal that Mr. McCarthy could take no one’s vote for granted, given the narrow GOP majority in the House.
“We’ve been lied to and we can’t trust people,” Mr. Buck said. “They’re going to have to make a trustworthy deal again, and then we can unify and move things forward.”
Last week, Mr. McCarthy helped push through legislation to raise the $31.4 trillion debt limit until after the 2024 presidential election. The measure passed the House thanks to a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats.
Overall, 71 House Republicans voted against the deal. Most of them said the agreement did not go far enough to curtail spending or rein in the Biden administration.
“At best we have a two-year spending freeze that’s full of loopholes and gimmicks that would allow for increased funding for the federal bureaucracy in order to achieve a $4 trillion increase in the debt [limit],” Mr. Roy said.
The deal clawed back billions of dollars in unspent pandemic relief and cut IRS funding by more than $20 billion over two years.
Mr. Biden secured a win by keeping domestic spending flat for the upcoming fiscal year in the face of GOP calls for at least $130 billion in immediate cuts. Both sides found bipartisan agreement on boosting defense spending by more than $26 billion.
Republicans scored a victory by forcing Mr. Biden to agree to cap the growth of federal spending at 1% next year.
“We used the power we had to force the president to negotiate,” Mr. McCarthy said. “We produced a bill that in divided government takes a step toward smaller government, less regulation, more economic growth, and more take-home pay.”
Not everyone agreed. Freedom Caucus hardliners made a concerted effort to derail the legislation, even threatening to oust Mr. McCarthy if it passed.
The group nearly tanked Mr. McCarthy’s speakership bid this year. In exchange for allowing Mr. McCarthy’s ascension, the group pushed through a rules package that decentralized the power of congressional leadership.
The new rules include a provision empowering any single lawmaker to force a vote on ejecting the speaker, known in Congress-speak as a motion to vacate the chair.
“It’s in the rules for a reason,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, Pennsylvania Republican, said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the vote by Rep. Paul Gosar, Arizona Republican. Mr. Gosar voted for the rule.
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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