Anti-McCarthy group vows not to be picked off one-by-one
Dispute continues over whether single member can try to oust speaker
By Lindsey McPherson
Posted December 14, 2022 at 7:08pm
https://rollcall.com/2022/12/14/anti-mccarthy-group-vows-not-to-be-picked-off-one-by-one/
As Republicans huddled Wednesday to discuss House rule changes that could help Kevin McCarthy in his quest to become speaker, five members who have publicly opposed him made clear they're organizing as a bloc and can't be peeled off individually.
Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Matt Rosendale of Montana and Ralph Norman of South Carolina have all broadcast plans to vote against McCarthy.
Leaving the rules discussion, where no final decisions were made, Biggs and Norman said they remained unmoved in their resolve to oppose McCarthy and expect their bloc of five will remain united in the Jan. 3 floor election and likely expand before then.
“It will grow,” Norman said.
Biggs has stepped up as an alternative candidate and is planning to vote for himself. He said he expects the other four to vote for him too, which Norman confirmed is his plan.
“I trust all four of the bloc,” Biggs said.
The five-member bloc is powerful because four is the maximum number of GOP votes McCarthy could lose in what will be a 222-member conference and still become speaker if no one is absent or votes “present” to lower the threshold. Only members voting for a speaker candidate by name count toward determining the majority threshold McCarthy needs to win, which would be 218 if all members are present and vote for someone by name.
While Biggs does not expect anyone else to challenge McCarthy before Jan. 3, he said others will step forward once it becomes clear no one has 218 votes.
“People have quietly come to me and some others and expressed interest, and I find that intriguing,” Biggs said. He declined to name those Republicans but said they’re House members who are not in the Freedom Caucus.
Fence sitters
Beyond the bloc of five, others who remain on the fence about McCarthy are seeking House rule changes to help them make their decision.
The House Freedom Caucus has floated numerous rule changes they want to see, but only some of the group’s roughly three dozen members are trying to leverage their speaker vote to secure them.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., sent a “Dear Colleague” letter last week outlining priorities for rule changes and other commitments they want from any speaker candidate. Four other Freedom Caucus members, Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona, and two members-elect who are expected to join the group, Eli Crane of Arizona and Andy Ogles of Tennessee, also signed the letter.
Their conditions include: allowing any individual member to offer a privileged motion to vacate the chair, a mechanism to oust the speaker; ensuring members have at least 72 hours to read a bill before a vote; limit bills moving on the floor to a single subject; and allowing germane amendments to be debated on the floor.
Clyde, who just won his second term, said in a statement he has a good working relationship with McCarthy and considers him a friend. The items presented in the letter “are simply what I expect and require for anyone seeking the responsibility of serving as speaker — as accountability of the speaker to the membership is paramount,” he said.
Perry declined to get into too many details after Wednesday’s rules discussion but said members having an opportunity to debate rules before leaders set them was progress.
“This is the first House rules forum I've ever seen,” he said. “I think it's a step in the right direction. I also would say that none of this would be happening if we had a 240-seat majority.”
Norman said the bloc of five is also interested in many of the same suggestions Perry and other Freedom Caucus members have made on the motion to vacate, single-issue bills and having 72 hours to review legislation before a vote.
McCarthy has yet to agree to more than minimal changes, members have said. If he were to offer major concessions they are seeking, Norman said the bloc would get together and debate whether to drop their opposition.
“Everybody has main issues, but the good thing is we’re together on a majority of them,” he said. “And we’ll get together and discuss it.”
Motion to vacate
The motion to vacate has become a lightning rod in the speaker and rules discussions because that’s the tool Freedom Caucus members used in 2015 to help force out then-Speaker John A. Boehner.
At the time, any member could file a motion to vacate; the one against Boehner was introduced by then-Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a founding Freedom Caucus member who left Congress to become White House chief of staff under President Donald Trump.