What should be a big day for Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives may have an inauspicious start as one big question still looms over today’s start of the 118th Congress: Who will be the next Speaker of the House?
House Republicans hold a slim majority in the chamber with 222 members, and GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy will need to secure the support of 218 of them to get the speakership. At least five Republicans have said publicly that they will not vote for McCarthy.
As of now, two Colorado Republicans aren’t publicly backing McCarthy either. U.S. Reps. Ken Buck and Lauren Boebert did not vote for McCarthy during the caucus’ nomination process last fall, where 188 of their colleagues voted for McCarthy.
Rep. Doug Lamborn is Colorado’s only Republican to publicly back McCarthy’s quest for the gavel.
If McCarthy doesn’t get the gavel after the first vote, it will move into multiple votes. More importantly, the focus will be on a party in disarray not the work Republicans promised to take up during the congressional session.
Boebert has been one of the conservative members quietly involved in several of the discussions held by McCarthy and other groups within the GOP caucus debating rules changes and what can be done to hold leadership accountable that might win her support and get McCarthy to 218.
Boebert has said she wants to see the motion to vacate rule returned to where one member can remove the House Speaker. It was something the majority of the caucus voted against in the fall, instead voting that a majority of the conference should have that power.
In proposed conference rules, McCarthy lowered the threshold from a majority to five members being able to call for a motion to vacate.
It was this parliamentary procedure that undid former GOP House Speaker John Boehner. When Nancy Pelosi became Speaker again in 2019, she changed the rule so that a majority of the caucus must agree before attempting to remove their leader.
That may be Boebert’s red line, but there are other rules changes she’d also like to see considered, according to a spokesperson, including making a conference rule that says if 20% of the caucus supports an amendment, it should be brought to the floor a House rule, a single subject rule for legislation and seeing more Freedom Caucus members hold committee gavels. Currently, only one member does.
The proposed rules do include the single subject rule, as well as other changes designed to appease the more conservative members of the caucus. Those include reinstating the CUTGO rule, meaning any mandatory spending increases will have to be offset by cuts to mandatory spending. The rule change would replace a practice known as PAY GO, which means Congress has to offset the cost of spending increases. Another rule change would reimpose a three-fifths supermajority requirement to approve any increases in tax rates.
The proposed rules would also mandate at least 72 hours between the release of bill text and a final vote, as well as allow committee chairs to bring bills voted out of committee to the House floor for an open amendment process, again with 72 hours of notice.
It is still unclear if these proposed changes will win McCarthy conservative support. And some centrist Republicans have already said publicly they will only support this rules package if McCarthy is the Speaker.
Buck, who has refrained from commenting publicly, doesn’t expect the work of the House to be delayed. According to his spokesperson, he “is confident that when the new Congress convenes in January, the House GOP will come together, elect the new Speaker of the House, and move forward in a strong manner to deliver real results on behalf of the American people.”
It’s unclear who else in the caucus would be able to get the support of 218 fellow Republicans.
It’s been 100 years since there was a Speaker of the House election that required multiple ballots. Without a Speaker, the new members can’t be sworn in, and the work of the House will get delayed as the process for forming committees stalls.
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