Republican Kevin McCarthy was blocked in his bid to become US House speaker for a historic ninth time on Thursday, leaving his party fractured and the chamber paralyzed for a third straight day.
(Bloomberg) — Republican Kevin McCarthy was blocked in his bid to become US House speaker for a historic ninth time on Thursday, leaving his party fractured and the chamber paralyzed for a third straight day.
There is no resolution to the standoff immediately in sight. That is despite McCarthy’s offer of significant concessions on House rules that would weaken his power and his ability to control hard-liners in his party, which raise the risk of chaos on issues like the debt ceiling and government spending.
After three days of voting, 20 of 222 Republicans held firm in their opposition to McCarthy, more than enough to deny him the majority he needs to be elected speaker. The House moved immediately to a 10th round of voting.
McCarthy’s back-to-back losses marked a post-Civil War record for the number of ballots needed to select a speaker. In 1923, Republican Frederick Gillett was elected to the post after nine ballots. The last multi-ballot speaker vote before that was in 1859, when 44 votes were needed.
Both sides continued to try to negotiate a way out of the stalemate. During the votes, many of the dissidents held talks on the outlines for a deal on House rules. One McCarthy ally suggested the haggling may extend through the weekend.
“We’re putting meat on the bones today,” Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said. “It’s got to be a whole new rules package” and members should get 72 hours to read and digest it.
Representative Patrick McHenry, a key emissary for McCarthy in talks with the GOP dissident, left closed-door talks late Thursday afternoon saying he was optimistic of getting a deal to secure McCarthy’s bid for speaker.
“I think we have the right contours that enable us to get Kevin McCarthy to have a majority vote,” McHenry said.
McCarthy has offered a group of GOP dissidents one of their biggest demands: lowering the threshold to bring a motion to oust a speaker to just one lawmaker, a person familiar with the talks said.
Under current parliamentary rules, it would take half of the House GOP to forward such a motion to remove the leader. Changing that to just one lawmaker would leave the speaker, the second-in-line to the presidency, facing potential repetitive attempts for removal.
The most hardcore dissidents have not been part of the latest horse trading, however. Dissidents like Andy Biggs, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert and Bob Good continue to say they will never vote for McCarthy. Matt Rosendale and Eli Crane are also part of that group. It would take only five opponents to continue to block McCarthy.
“We need to get to a point where we start evaluating what life after Kevin McCarthy looks like,” Boebert said on the House floor as she nominated Oklahoma Representative Kevin Hern as an alternative to McCarthy.
McCarthy has faced three days of House floor balloting without gaining a majority of votes, which he needs in the face of unified Democratic opposition.
McCarthy had said earlier Thursday that he didn’t expect many votes would change but the two sides are still talking. But the latest concessions show that, if he succeeds, he’s paying a steep price.
In 2015, a motion to vacate was filed against former Speaker John Boehner, a Republican who resigned from office before the vote was held.
McCarthy has also offered to meet demands to seat some far-right conservatives on plum committees, including at least two of them on the House Rules Committee; they had been seeking four.
In addition, votes on term limits and border security have been promised, and additional budget and appropriations changes are being discussed, along with specific subcommittee chairmanships. Those changes will be difficult for appropriators — some of McCarthy’s biggest supporters — to swallow.
Arkansas Republican Steve Womack, an appropriator, left the Thursday morning meeting saying that “frustrated” doesn’t begin to describe his reaction to the latest concessions. He said he would go through the proposal, line by line.
“There’s not a word,” Womack said about his feelings about the proposal. “Webster hasn’t come up with a word yet.”
Still, even supporters say it will be difficult for McCarthy to get 218 votes, which would meet the required 50% plus one vote threshold to get elected.
But a person involved said there’s talk of enticing some of those Republicans to back McCarthy, and then convincing some others to simply not vote for anyone — lowering the majority threshold. That would reduce the total number of votes McCarthy would need.
–With assistance from Emily Wilkins, Zach C. Cohen, Christian Hall, Laura Davison and Laura Litvan.
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