Kevin McCarthy Makes Last-Minute Concessions in Scramble for Speakership
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In a last-ditch bid to entice fence-sitters ahead of Tuesday’s vote for the speakership of the 118th Congress, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is offering several concessions.
Among the accommodations McCarthy is offering Republicans in Congress who are still holding out is a motion to allow a vote of no confidence in his speakership to be initiated with as few as five party members.
“Just as the Speaker is elected by the whole body, we will restore the ability for any 5 members of the majority party to initiate a vote to remove the Speaker if so warranted,” McCarthy wrote on Sunday in a letter addressed to House Republicans.
McCarthy is also offering to tighten up House proxy-voting procedures. The issue is particularly relevant in light of the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill’s passing in late December with more than 200 congressional representatives (roughly half the chamber) absent at the time.
“Congress was never intended for Zoom, and no longer will members be able to phone it in while attending lavish international weddings or sailing on their boat. We will meet, gather and debate in person — just as the founders envisioned,” McCarthy noted in the letter.
Nevertheless, such gestures have not swayed all the holdouts. Nine House Republicans penned a letter on New Year’s Day: “Regrettably, however, despite some progress achieved, Mr. McCarthy’s statement comes almost impossibly late to address continued deficiencies ahead of the opening of the 118th Congress on January 3rd,” the group wrote, according to a copy obtained by Punchbowl News.
The signatories include some prominent members of the Freedom Caucus such as Chip Roy of Texas, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Andrew Clyde of Georgia. The statement concluded that the “progress made thus far has been helpful and should guide our thinking going forward.”
Defiant House Republicans make McCarthy’s path to the speakership precarious. Senior unnamed allies of McCarthy’s told Axios that it’s “hard to see a path” to his securing the 218 votes necessary to assume the position. Some estimate that McCarthy can lose the support of no more than four House Republicans if his speakership ambitions are to remain viable.
