Several members of the House Freedom Caucus are openly seeking to derail the debt limit deal that was brokered by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), with some members questioning the Republican leader’s loyalty to the party.
The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. to vote on advancing the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which would raise the debt ceiling while also implementing a number of spending cuts as a result of negotiations between McCarthy and President Joe Biden. Several hard-line Republicans are unhappy with the deal, with many urging their colleagues to vote against it, even as the country creeps closer to the June 5 default deadline.
“Speaker McCarthy had a mandate from the American people negotiated with a powerful negotiation position of a unified Republican Party, not only just in the House but in the House and the Senate, to hold the line for the bill that we passed,” Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) said on Tuesday. “This bill that we’ve heard about totally failed to deliver on all of it.”
🚨BREAKING: House Freedom Caucus leaves open possibility of filing a motion to vacate the chair if Speaker McCarthy pushes through the debt deal
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 30, 2023
At least 20 Republicans so far have vowed to vote against the bill, with a majority of those hailing from the House Freedom Caucus, a gaggle of lawmakers who were unlikely to support any negotiated agreement that offered less than what already included in the Limit, Save, Grow Act that passed the House last month. But Republicans in the caucus say it’s not enough and are calling on their GOP colleagues to sink the bill altogether.
“Not one Republican should vote for this deal,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX). “It’s a bad deal.”
Roy was one of the first Republicans to come out against the deal shortly after it was announced on Saturday, criticizing the bill as bending to Democratic demands without holding the line on several GOP priorities.
The deal has prompted some Republicans to call on McCarthy to kill it, with others questioning whether it’s enough to reconsider his speakership.
“I think it’s got to be done,” Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) said when asked if Republicans would consider a motion to vacate. “I think it is a question of the time and place … of those people who have the courage to deal with this problem for the American people.”
Bishop is the first Republican to come out publicly with a threat to oust McCarthy from his leadership position, while several other GOP members have stopped short of making such a statement.
“I’ll let each member speak for themselves,” Perry said. “But for me, I am focused on defeating this bill. What happens post-that and the agreements that we have, we will decide once we determine the disposition of this bill and its finality.”
Roy has also hinted that he may be open to a motion to vacate after posting to Twitter on Monday that a concession was made during speakership elections in January that nothing could pass the Rules Committee unless all seven Republicans were on board, a deal that had not been made public before this week.
“We will see,” Roy said when asked what action he would take if that agreement is broken. “I’m not going to go down that road right now, other than just to point out that a general part of the agreement … was that we would have unanimous support when we come out of the Rules Committee.”
Other members of the committee, including Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), and Andy Biggs (R-AZ), are calling on their colleagues to vote against the bill but have stopped short on whether they’d back a motion to vacate.
“I think that’s something that’s going to be tackled after this,” Donalds said. “I think that that vehicle is a serious one. I don’t know yet.”
