A group of hard-line House Republicans released a list of demands for the new Republican majority, putting more pressure on Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as he navigates a tenuous path in his bid for speaker.
The Thursday letter addressed to colleagues includes demands the House Freedom Caucus has been pushing for to make the legislative process friendlier to rank-and-file Republicans. The letter doesn’t name McCarthy specifically but makes clear he will have to listen to the demands to earn the seven crucial votes of the letter’s writers.
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“As we form the 118th Congress, any GOP Speaker candidate must make clear he or she will advance rules, policies, and an organizational structure that will result in the values listed below,” the letter began.
“For years, however, the House leadership of both parties has increasingly centralized decision-making power around fewer and fewer individuals — at the expense of deliberation and input by the body,” they continued. “This results in massive, multi-subject bills that are unable to be amended or fully read, all driven by supposedly must-pass defense and appropriations measures. In the process, we’ve amassed trillions of dollars in debt, empowered administration bureaucrats who target citizens, and failed to carry out our basic duties to defend the American People.”
NEW: A group of conservatives sent a Dear Colleague letter today listing out calls for the next Speaker to implement changes including preventing leadership from getting involved in primaries. pic.twitter.com/30dojKHDBC
— Juliegrace Brufke (@juliegraceb) December 8, 2022
Their demands include bringing back the “motion to vacate the chair” that would allow members to ask party leadership to step down, allowing a minimum of 72 hours between publishing the text of a bill and voting on it, returning to single-subject bills, banning leadership from getting involved in primary elections, and a plan to balance the budget.
The seven signers are Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA), the Freedom Caucus chairman; Dan Bishop (R-SC); Paul Gosar (R-AZ); Chip Roy (R-TX); Andrew Clyde (R-GA); and two incoming freshman lawmakers: Reps.-elect Eli Crane (R-AZ) and Andy Ogles (R-TN). The group is different from the five Republicans who have either said or strongly indicated they will not vote for McCarthy for speaker.
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McCarthy huddled with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), one of his fiercest detractors, on Thursday in an apparent reconciliation attempt, though the Florida Republican has reiterated his opposition to McCarthy.
With a slim 222-seat majority over the Democrats’ 213 seats, McCarthy can only afford to have about four members of his own caucus vote against him to become speaker of the House, which requires majority approval from the entire House.
