The US House of Representatives is set to resume votes on a handful of Republican-backed bills on Tuesday after a week-long impasse between Kevin McCarthy, the speaker, and a small group of far-right Republicans.
Business is set to resume on the House floor on Tuesday afternoon. A slate of previously stalled votes, including a procedural measure to advance legislation protecting gas stoves, are expected to move forward.
The agreement comes after a group of 11 Republicans brought the chamber to a halt last week by voting with Democrats and tanking a pair of GOP-backed bills in a revolt against McCarthy for working with Biden to address the debt ceiling. Members of the House Freedom Caucus criticized McCarthy for weak leadership.
McCarthy appeared to have resolved the conflict with the holdouts following a closed-door meeting on Monday afternoon.
“We know when we work together and work on conservative issues, we were winning, and we get more victories that way,” McCarthy told reporters after emerging from the talks.
But lawmakers warned on Monday that they would continue to stall the GOP agenda if McCarthy did not listen to their demands. Among calls for deeper spending cuts, hardliners asked for a resolution condemning Biden’s calls for stricter gun control.
“Perhaps we’ll be back here next week,” Congressman Matt Gaetz, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told reporters as he exited the meeting.
Later on Monday evening, McCarthy announced defense and domestic spending bills would include deeper spending cuts in a sign of the outcomes of the closed-door talks, according to the Washington Post.
Since assuming the top House leadership role, McCarthy has struggled to gain the support of the Republican party. It took 15 rounds of votes for McCarthy to win the speakership in January as far-right Republicans stalled his confirmation.
Yet other Republican members of the House criticized the hardliners for stalling their agenda. In a weekly closed-door meeting of the Republican conference on Tuesday morning, lawmakers condemned last week’s vote blockade.
First-term congressman Derrick Van Orden, of Wisconsin, lashed out against the House Freedom Caucus in a fiery speech, according to multiple reports, saying his daughter is dying of cancer yet he still shows up to work every day.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
