House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy faces pressure from hard-line conservative Republicans to whip votes against the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan.
The dynamic may be a key test for McCarthy’s ambitions to be House speaker if Republicans take back the House in 2022.
The House Freedom Caucus on Monday called on House Republican leadership to whip votes against the Democrats’ go-it-alone $3.5 trillion infrastructure and social spending plan, as well as the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal.
Texas Rep. Chip Roy, who launched a last-minute bid to be House Republican Conference Chair against New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, said it is “absolutely absurd that 19 Senate Republicans vote along with Democrats to advance a $1.2 trillion bill.”
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The bill “massively empowers the Chinese, massively empowers the Department of Transportation, massively empowers the federal government over the American people, doesn’t spend money the way they want it to be spent, massively increases the Green New Deal,” Roy said. “We have a country to save. Republicans should act like it.”
Firebrand Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene indicated electoral threats from the Right could be on the horizon for Republicans who vote for the bipartisan bill.
“Any Republican that participates in it should be shamed and should never be voted for again,” Greene said Monday.
Her fellow Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde said only “socialists” or “communists” would vote for either bill.
It is not just the Freedom Caucus messaging against the bill. The Republican Study Committee distributed talking points against the infrastructure bill, calling it a “Trojan horse for the radical Pelosi/Biden agenda.”
The Republican Study Committee this congressional session, led by Indiana Rep. Jim Banks this session, has over 150 members, accounting for more than two-thirds of the caucus.
McCarthy has said Republicans should vote against the infrastructure bill if it’s tied to the budget reconciliation plan, saying he has “great frustration with this bill.”
But he has declined to go as far as to organize his caucus against it.
Asked whether he would whip votes against the infrastructure on Tuesday, McCarthy told reporters: “I don’t think the infrastructure bill should come up,” arguing Congress should solely focus on the crisis in Afghanistan and evacuating Americans and allies.
Centrist Republican support for the infrastructure proposal complicates McCarthy’s position. He does not want to endanger members who will face tough elections to win competitive seats. His counterpart in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, voted in favor of the bipartisan bill.
The House of Tuesday advanced the massive spending blueprint despite some splitting among Democrats over the timing of which one to pass first.
Pelosi on Tuesday committed to passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill by Sept. 27.
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“Even if you believe that we have an infrastructure crisis, which we don’t, that’s the one crisis Biden has not yet created. Even if you believe that that bill was paid for, which it’s not. Even if you believe that voting for it will prevent the Democrats from passing the $3.5 trillion massive package, or changing filibuster, or not passing it through reconciliation — none of that’ll happen,” said Virginia Rep. Bob Good, adding to the chorus of Republicans opposite the infrastructure bill. “Why would we still, if you believed all those things, vote for a trillion dollars of terrible spending that’s bad for the country?”
