House Republican lawmakers are sniping at one another over whether to keep the rule that allowed eight GOP lawmakers to eject Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a contender for the chamber’s top job, said he is willing to let his GOP colleagues decide if the rule needs to be changed.
“If the conference wants that rule changed, I’m not gonna go to Democrats to get that done. No way,” he said Thursday on Fox News. “We will have to decide as 222 Republicans, are we going to change that? That’s the only way it gets done — if that’s what the conference wants.”
The rule that allows a single member to call a vote to force out the speaker, what is known as a motion to vacate the chair, empowered Rep. Matt Gaetz to topple Mr. McCarthy on Tuesday.
House Republicans could change the rule by increasing the number of lawmakers needed to force the vote.
The 70 moderates in the Republican Main Street Caucus demand that any candidate for speaker pitch a proposal to change the rules on the motion to vacate. But members of the ultra-right Freedom Caucus, which includes Mr. Gaetz and the other rebels who ousted Mr. McCarthy, want the rule to stay in place.
“Personal politics should never again be used to trump the will of 96% of House conservatives,” the Main Street Caucus said in a statement. “Any candidate for Speaker must explain to us how what happened on Tuesday will never happen again.”
Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, who worked as one of Mr. McCarthy’s lieutenants, suggested changing the rule to impose a penalty on anyone who files a motion to vacate the chair without the support of the majority of the conference.
“The number of great people that are in this conference that have said, ‘Hell no, I wouldn’t even consider that job because it’s going to be a complete failure.’ And so that needs to be addressed,” Mr. Graves said.
Rep. Carlos Jimenez, Florida Republican, demanded that the motion to vacate “be reformed” so that what happened to Mr. McCarthy “NEVER happens again.”
“The person who wants my vote for Speaker must commit to reforming the motion to vacate,” he posted on social media. “The threshold must be raised to 50% of the Republican Conference. A Speaker cannot govern under constant threat by fringe hostage takers.”
Mr. Gaetz of Florida shot back on social media: “So the way moderates want to punish me is by making it harder to remove Speaker Jordan or Speaker Scalise? OH NO! ANYTHING BUT THAT!!!!”
Mr. Jimenez responded, “Matt, this isn’t a kindergarten classroom. No one gets punished around here. It’s about doing what’s right. … I’m glad to know that you’ll be on board with increasing the threshold to 50%!”
Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a McCarthy detractor when he first ran for speaker at the beginning of the year, said on social media: “I’m willing to ditch the Motion To Vacate with Jim Jordan as Speaker. … The House has a lot of work ahead, let’s get this over with and take our country back!”
Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, one of the lawmakers who voted against Mr. McCarthy, said he would fight to keep the motion to vacate at a one-lawmaker threshold. “We’re not going to let somebody like Kevin McCarthy, who’s going to be insecure about that,” he said on Fox News.
The motion to vacate rule is part of the House’s governing manual, but each new Congress gets to decide its own rules.
It was considered a privileged motion prior to 2019, empowering one lawmaker to call the vote. After two GOP speakers, John A. Boehner in 2015 and Paul D. Ryan in 2018, were threatened with it and ultimately left office before being thrown out, Rep. Nancy Pelosi pressed for a rule change when she took the gavel in 2019. The Democrat-run House then required the support of a majority of the chamber to call the vote to vacate the chair.
After Republicans captured the House in 2022, Mr. McCarthy won the gavel in January following a historic 15 ballot rounds. To secure enough votes, he had to promise hard-line conservatives including Mr. Gaetz that he revert to the one-member threshold.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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