Lawmakers are doling out blame and demanding answers on the train derailment in Ohio.
Legislators from both parties are expressing frustration and asking for more to be done, though Republicans in particular have put Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg directly in the hot seat.
“Secretary Buttigieg is nowhere to be found on this issue. It really is a remarkable thing that he hasn't gone to East Palestine to see what happened there,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Fox Business this week. “He hasn't come to Congress to explain what happened. For whatever reason, the Secretary seems to fill his days with politics. I know he has aspirations, but he actually has a day job.”
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) floated impeaching Buttigieg over how he has handled the derailment.
"I hope he does resign, and if he doesn't, there's a long list of impeachment criteria,” Davidson told conservative outlet Real America’s Voice Thursday. “I never would have thought we'd see a point where we need to impeach a Secretary of Transportation, but daggon, how many failures have to happen on his watch before we call it?"
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week that the White House has “absolute confidence” in Buttigieg.
The derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3 released chemicals, including toxic vinyl chloride, into the surrounding community, prompting a temporary evacuation.
State and federal authorities have said that the area’s air and water are now safe, but residents remain fearful and concerned.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are questioning Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about why it isn’t providing emergency assistance.
Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), who represents East Palestine, led a letter signed by the entire Ohio congressional delegation urging FEMA to provide assistance.
Johnson also told The Hill in a written statement that there may be room for congressional or administrative action once investigations on the issue are complete.
“Congress and the administration must take a close look at the findings to determine what policies to modify and/or implement to better prevent anything like this from happening again,” he said.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has called on Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) to declare an emergency, though DeWine’s office has said that it was told by FEMA that it was not eligible for assistance.
Beyond the issue of FEMA, Republicans have sent mixed messages on water quality.
The state has said testing indicated that municipal water in East Palestine is safe, but DeWine has also told residents to drink bottled water out of an “abundance of caution.”
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has also said that he would drink bottled water; He posted a video on Thursday showing what appeared to be chemicals in a creek, saying there were “dead worms and dead fish all throughout this water.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, traveled to East Palestine and posted a video of himself drinking water that he said came from its taps — saying that he was helping the mayor of East Palestine get the word out that the tap water is safe to drink.
“What's clear is there is a lot of work to do. I thank the first responders and personnel on site for all their efforts thus far. I will work in a bipartisan effort to ensure our freight rail system is as safe as possible and prevent tragedies like this from occurring again,” Nehls said in a statement.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), too, has criticized the administration’s timeliness.
“It is unacceptable that it took nearly two weeks for a senior Administration official to show up,” he said in a statement on EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s visit to the area.
DeWine, for this part, called on Congress to take action if it is true that the railroad was not required to notify the state about the chemicals on the train because they were not considered high hazardous materials, Fox 19 reported.
Vance supported the call for labeling the materials as hazardous, though he said that the responsibility lies not only with Congress but also with the Transportation Department.
“I don’t want to let Congress off the hook here because Congress can legislate a solution to this problem and that’s exactly what I'm going to try to do. We should have some legislation coming out here to that effect in the next few days, but look, the Department of Transportation can act on this issue too. This is a regulatory problem and a legal problem,” he told reporters this past week.
Republicans are turning the U.S.-Mexico border into something of an extension campus for the House of Representatives.
A two-week recess kicked off a flurry of hearings and visits to the border by multiple GOP-led House committees, with more in the works.
Republicans are looking to place blame on the Biden administration for drug trafficking, national security and the humanitarian crisis as migrant encounters at the southern border remain near record highs.
And they think being on location will help build up public disapproval of Democratic policies.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday visited the border in Cochise County, Ariz., with four freshman House Republicans who flipped Democratic-held seats in 2022: Reps. Juan Ciscomani (Ariz.), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Ore.), Jen Kiggans (Va.), and Derrick Van Orden (Wis.).
Speaking from the property of a rancher with the border fence in the background — the location found by GPS coordinates rather than an address — McCarthy said the GOP activity at the border is aimed at forcing Democrats to pay attention.
“The new majority in Congress, we're gonna fight to fix this problem. No longer will the Democrats be able to ignore the issue and act like it's not happening,” McCarthy said. “We will have hearings on the border. It’s the responsibility of all members to attend. Those who come to testify will come from both sides of the aisle.”
The House Energy and Commerce Committee investigations and health subcommittees held a joint field hearing in McAllen, Texas, on Wednesday, arguing President Biden’s border policies have contributed to a public health crisis with fentanyl deaths.
Next Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing near the border in Yuma, Ariz.
Members of the House Homeland Security Committee will go to El Paso, Texas, next week as part of a “border boot camp,” with a focus on educating freshman members on daily operations of Customs and Border Protection and the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to a committee source. It plans to hold a hearing at the border in March.
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the new chair of the Homeland Security Committee, wants to hire full-time staff members based on the U.S.-Mexico border. After being selected as chair last month, he told reporters that those staffers will be “sending us real time updates” on issues at the border.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee, which held a hearing in Washington about the border earlier this month, also plans to travel south for oversight activity in the future.
Border hawks are pleased to see Republicans there in person.
“It's really common sense. It's what leaders do. They go to the heart of the crisis, whether it's a hurricane or tornado, a terrorist attack, it doesn't matter,” Mark Morgan, the former chief operating officer and acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the Trump administration, told The Hill. “When you physically see it up close and personal, it changes your understanding. It changes your perspective.”
Morgan, who is now a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, talked about the emotional impact of seeing in person Border Patrol agents interact with migrants. And he criticized White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for commenting last year that “it’s not like somebody walks over” the border.
“That is exactly what they do all day long,” Morgan said. "Had she spent 30 seconds at the border — 30 seconds — she would have seen … It would have changed her understanding; it would have changed her perception.”
But Democrats see the activities as little more than publicity stunts.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), whose district encompasses parts of Cochise County, paid his own visit to the border Thursday and criticized the tenor of Republicans' focus on the border.
"I don't see this thing as serious, what McCarthy's doing, parachuting in, doing the photo-op, hanging out with the one rancher and Sheriff [Dannels], taking their word as Bible and moving on,” Grijalva told The Hill on Thursday.
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels is a favorite witness on border issues for the GOP and a frequent guest on Fox News, but he has been accused by Democrats and immigration advocates of espousing an anti-immigrant agenda.
"I would have gone to the cities and the communities that are on the border. I would have him go and sit down with the people in Douglas, sit down with the people in Nogales, sit down with the people in San Luis and Somerton, sit down with the people in Naco, sit down with the people in Sasabe, sit down with the people that do business on that border, sit down with the families that have been there multi-generationally, sit down with them and talk about their needs and their perception of the border," Grijalva said.
A White House spokesman on Wednesday dismissed McCarthy’s trip, saying “House Republicans should spend less time on partisan publicity stunts and more time working on solutions.”
And House Judiciary Committee Democrats will not attend next week’s hearing in Yuma.
Ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement subcommittee ranking member Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a joint statement Thursday that there was “no consultation” with Democrats on the hearing, and that many Democratic members had already committed to other congressional delegation trips.
They called it “a brazen act of political grandstanding,” adding, “as a result, Democrats, who have been to the border regularly the last few years, will not attend next week’s performative hearing. Additionally, Judiciary Democrats will conduct their own trip to the border next month where we will hear from the community and government officials on the ground."
The House Judiciary GOP said in a tweet that was “FAKE NEWS,” and Republicans had been in consultation with Democrats for weeks about the trip — sharing a video of comments from Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in the committee’s first meeting to make the minority aware of a planned trip to the border that week.
"They're just scared to face the harsh realities of the #BidenBorderCrisis,” the committee tweeted.
Also looming over the in-person border activities is the potential impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Those calling for his impeachment argue that he has not achieved “operational control.”
McCarthy has not committed to impeaching Mayorkas, saying that impeachment will not be “political.” But in November, he called on Mayorkas to resign or face House GOP investigations — warning that it could lead to impeachment.
But even as they try to draw attention to the border and take aim at Democrats, Republicans face internal disagreement over legislation to address immigration issues. GOP leaders had planned to quickly bring to the House floor a bill that would allow the Homeland Security secretary to turn away migrants in order to achieve “operational control” at the border.
Objections from moderates like Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) over the legislation being “anti-immigrant” derailed that plan.
Republicans are now working on border and immigration legislation that will go through a normal committee process.
“We've got a lot of ideas inside Congress. It’s different than the Congress before,” McCarthy said at the border Thursday. “We're just not going to write the bill and put it onto the floor. We're going to listen to the people that are on the border. We're going to listen to border agents. We want the very best ideas.”
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took aim at Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, fueling an argument that could help lay the groundwork for a potential impeachment.
“This has got to stop. And it starts with the Secretary of Homeland. Stop lying to the American public. Tell them the truth what's happening, and change back the regulation that we had before so our border can be secure,” McCarthy said in a press conference from Cochise County, Ariz., with the border fence in the background.
McCarthy did not specify what he thought Mayorkas lied about, but Republicans have repeatedly dinged him for testifying in a congressional hearing last year that the border is secure.
The issue of whether there is “operational control” at the border is central to the argument from hard-line conservative House Republicans that Mayorkas should be impeached.
That term refers to the Secure Fence Act of 2006, a law that says operational control of the border means prevention “of all unlawful entries” to the United States.
McCarthy has not endorsed impeaching Mayorkas, but in November called on him to resign, saying that House GOP investigations will determine whether they can open an impeachment inquiry.
“What has changed from President Trump to President Biden? There has been no legislation change, but why has the border — why has this region gone from 66,000 people come across to 250,000?” McCarthy said.
The press conference took place on the private property of a rancher.
“His family has found 14 dead bodies on his ranch in just the last couple years,” McCarthy said. "Those are human bodies. He tells the story of his grandson smelling the body. That is different from a dead cow.”
“Why is that happening? Because the administration's policies that is allowing it to happen,” McCarthy said. “When you look at the gaps in the wall. Why are they there? Why are these lights wired but not working? Because we got a new president that said to stop it. We paid for the metal to go up but it's stored far away. There's gaps that allow it to come in. That’s wrong.”
The trip marks McCarthy’s first visit to the border as Speaker. He was accompanied by four freshman House Republicans who flipped Democratic-held seats in 2022: Rep. Juan Ciscomani (Ariz.), whose district includes parts of Cochise County; Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Ore.), Jen Kiggans (Va.), and Derrick Van Orden (Wis.).
“There are two people that can really have an immediate impact on the situation in this country, and that's President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas,” Ciscomani said. “They both have failed, and they have shown no interest in fixing this issue. So I invite him here to the border to see what we saw today. Talk to the people that we talked to today and realize what impact this is having in our communities.”
Ciscomani said that the purpose of the trip was not to discuss immigration reform, but to discuss border security.
“These are two different issues and we need to deal with them separately,” Ciscomani said.
Republicans will turn their focus to the U.S.-Mexico border with a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing featuring four Border Patrol agents next month.
Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced the hearing on Thursday, to take place sometime during the week of Feb. 6. Border Patrol agents Jason Owens, Gregory Bovino, Gloria Chavez and Patricia McGurk-Daniel were invited to testify.
“The Biden Administration’s deliberate actions are fueling human smuggling, stimulating drug cartel operations, enabling deadly drugs such as fentanyl to flow into American communities, and encouraging illegal immigrants to flout U.S. immigration laws,” Comer charged in a statement. “Republicans will hold the Biden Administration accountable for this ongoing humanitarian, national security, and public health crisis that has turned every town into a border town.”
Comer separately sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday requesting documents and communications detailing accounting of illegal border crossings, border security plans, changes in certain migration policies, interior enforcement actions and several other matters.
The hearing is the second that the high-profile panel has scheduled. A hearing on waste, fraud and abuse in COVID-19 relief programs is set for Feb. 1.
A focus on the border, which Comer has long said will be a top priority for his committee, comes as several House Republicans are renewing their calls to impeach Mayorkas over his handling of the border. Any impeachment actions would be pursued by the House Judiciary Committee rather than the Oversight panel.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has called on Mayorkas to resign, but has stopped short of supporting impeachment.
“We can investigate, and then that investigation could lead to an impeachment inquiry. I don't predetermine because I'll never use impeachment for political purposes,” McCarthy told reporters on Monday.
All eyes are on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as he negotiates a fragile path to the Speakership next year in the face of opposition from a handful of conservatives within his own conference.
The Republicans flipped control of the House in last month’s midterms, but their razor-thin majority has empowered the far-right firebrands who are vowing to block McCarthy’s Speakership bid — and are resisting all entreaties to alter course for the sake of party unity.
The entrenched opposition has raised the specter that McCarthy simply won’t have the support he needs to win the gavel when the House gathers on Jan. 3 to choose the next Speaker.
And it’s sparked a number of predictions — some of them more far-fetched than others — about how the day might evolve and who might emerge as the next Speaker if McCarthy falls short.
Here are seven scenarios being floated heading into the vote, ranked from least to most likely:
A Democrat squeaks in
It’s theoretically possible that discord within the GOP could lead to a Democratic Speaker.
Such a result is very, very unlikely because Republicans will have the majority in the vote and do not want this to happen.
But it is possible — if chaos on the floor prompted frustrated GOP moderates to back a centrist Democrat — that a member of the minority could be elected Speaker.
In fact, it’s one of the warnings that McCarthy and his allies have sounded in recent weeks as they seek to break the logjam of opposition and win him the gavel.
“If we don’t do this right, the Democrats can take the majority. If we play games on the floor, the Democrats can end up picking who the Speaker is,” McCarthy said in a November Newsmax interview after he won the House GOP nomination for Speaker 188 to 31 over Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.).
The warning, however, is more threat than prospect, as Republicans would never back a Democrat for Speaker after four years in the minority wilderness under Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). And even McCarthy has seemed to acknowledge that implausibility, by shifting his argument elsewhere in the weeks since.
House elects a Speaker who is not a member of Congress
House rules do not technically require that the Speaker is a sitting, elected member of House — though every Speaker in U.S. history has been. That leaves open the possibility of members looking for a McCarthy alternative elsewhere.
When conservative House Republicans aimed to mount a challenge to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in 2014, they tried to recruit Ben Carson, who later went on to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), a Pelosi detractor, made a habit of voting for former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a supporter of McCarthy, told The Hill last week that there is no other member of the House Republican Conference who can get the support needed to be Speaker. And Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a liberal who’s been open to supporting a moderate “unity” candidate as a last resort, has said it does “not necessarily” have to be a sitting member.
A moderate Republican wins with backing of some Republicans and Democrats
That is a top worry of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has emerged as one of the most vocal supporters of McCarthy for Speaker.
Greene, who got a seat at the table from McCarthy rather than being made an outcast in the GOP conference, has repeatedly warned that moderate Republicans could flip to work with Democrats and support someone who is not as conservative as McCarthy — and less accommodating.
But Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who has said he’s talked to Democratic members about the possibility of backing an alternative candidate, has said he will only consider such a drastic measure if McCarthy drops out of the race for Speaker after repeated failed votes.
Still, at least one Democrat, Khanna, has expressed openness to backing a Republican Speaker candidate who will take certain measures to open up the House process to give Democrats more power in the minority, like equal subpoena power on committees. It is unlikely that Republicans would agree to such a concession.
Other lawmakers are skeptical of the chances for a bipartisan consensus candidate, saying it would be political suicide, particularly for Republicans.
“Let’s just say 20 of them joined with us to nominate somebody like Don Bacon, or bring Fred Upton back, or whatever,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). “Those 20 will be not quite as bad as if they voted for [former President Trump’s] impeachment, but moving in that direction. I just think that they’ll get beat to death."
McCarthy drops out of Speakership race to make way for consensus pick
The first time McCarthy sought the Speaker’s gavel was in 2015, to replace the retiring Boehner. That effort ended before the process ever reached the floor.
Faced with conservative opposition, McCarthy stunned Washington by dropping out of the race at the last moment, leaving Republicans scrambling for a viable candidate, who ultimately emerged in the form of Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.).
The difference this year is that there is no obvious figure who can easily win the support of both far-right conservatives who want to alter fundamentally how the House functions and the moderates ready to get on with the process of governing.
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), McCarthy’s top deputy, has been floated as a possible alternative.
But there’s no indication the conservatives would support anyone who didn’t accept the same demands they’re making of McCarthy, including a controversial rule change making it easier to oust a sitting Speaker — a change that would empower the right wing even further.
While Biggs continues his protest challenge to McCarthy, he has teased that there are other Republicans who have privately expressed interest in being an alternative if it becomes clear McCarthy cannot win the gavel.
But Biggs and his allies won’t name names, fearing doing so would put a target on their back.
House agrees to make McCarthy Speaker with a plurality of votes
If the House Speakership election drags on for multiple votes with McCarthy in the lead but not securing enough votes for a majority, the House could agree to adopt a resolution to declare that a Speaker can be elected by a plurality rather than by a majority.
That would require cooperation from Democrats, and it is not clear whether they would support such a resolution.
The first time was in 1849, after the House had been in session for 19 days and held 59 ballots for Speaker. It happened again in 1856, when the House had taken 129 Speaker votes without any candidate winning a majority.
With so much uncertainty, some lawmakers are already bracing for a long day on Jan. 3.
“I’m obviously observing it from the other side, but all the intel I get from my Republican friends is that: expect it to go late,” said Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.). “And I plan to wear my comfortable suit.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), a top “Never Kevin” Republican, floated that the Speaker election could take months — rivaling the longest-ever Speaker election in 1855, which took two months and 133 ballots.
“We may see the cherry blossoms before we have a Speaker,” Gaetz said, referring to the blooms that emerge in March or April in Washington, D.C.
McCarthy elected Speaker because of Democratic absences
A Speaker is elected by a majority of all of those present and voting, meaning that McCarthy does not necessarily need 218 votes to win the Speakership. If some members are absent or vote “present,” it lowers the threshold from 218.
Pelosi won the Speakership in 2021 with 216 votes due to vacancies and absences. And Boehner also won the Speakership with just 216 votes in 2015, when 25 members did not vote. Many Democrats were attending a funeral for the late New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (D) that day.
If the Speakership election drags on and Democrats tire of the repeated ballots, it is possible that Democratic members miss subsequent votes, which could lower the majority threshold just enough for McCarthy to squeak out a victory.
Illness, weather or other unforeseen circumstances could also affect member attendance on Jan. 3. And because Republicans are planning to eliminate the proxy voting installed by Democrats during the pandemic, lawmakers would not have the option of voting remotely for Speaker.
In the closely divided House, with 222 Republicans to 212 Democrats and one vacancy, McCarthy needs 218 votes if every member votes for a Speaker candidate.
McCarthy wins an outright majority of votes
Many Republicans supportive of McCarthy are optimistic that he will ultimately win a majority of votes without having to worry about Democrats.
Some members think that McCarthy may even be able to strike a deal with his detractors and win on the first ballot. Others think that once the McCarthy detractors make their point with at least one failed ballot, they might switch votes to allow him the gavel.
Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah) compared McCarthy’s situation to that of Pelosi after the 2018 election, when she started off with enough opponents to deny her the Speakership but made enough agreements to earn majority support from Democrats.
“It is not any different. Like, they have a month the jockey and people vote against Pelosi, and ultimately they all get to the point they need to get to. I'm confident we'll do the same,” Moore said. “If I'm blindsided and we're doing 700 rounds and we're here till July, you can come back to me and say, ‘You were wrong.’”
McCarthy said on Fox News on Wednesday that he will have the votes to become Speaker either on Jan. 3 or before then.
“It could be somebody else, but whoever the somebody else is, everyone has a similar problem [with conservatives],” said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.). “Which makes me believe that ultimately he’ll probably pull it together.”
House Republicans calling to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas turned up the pressure on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday, with around 20 GOP members and three former Department of Homeland Security officials gathering for a press conference.
The calls to impeach Mayorkas come as McCarthy faces opposition from a handful of GOP members to his Speakership, threatening to derail his bid for the gavel.
"Now that we have the majority in the House of Representatives, I expect our party to pursue impeachment next Congress,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who is running as a protest challenger to McCarthy for Speaker and introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas last year.
“Secretary Mayorkas has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. His conduct is not incompetent. It is not negligent. It is willful and intentional,” Biggs said.
Though McCarthy has been highly critical of Mayorkas, he has declined to firmly commit to impeachment for any Biden officials, saying that he will not make impeachment a political exercise. That position aggravated Biggs, whose resolution to impeach Mayorkas now has 32 GOP co-sponsors.
After winning the House GOP nomination for Speaker last month over Biggs, McCarthy traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border and called on Mayorkas to resign or face GOP investigations and a possible impeachment inquiry.
That is not good enough for Biggs, who said in a Washington Examiner op-ed on Tuesday that McCarthy had added “a little thickener to weak sauce — but it’s not good enough.”
Biggs insinuated that McCarthy’s resignation call was a political move, telling reporters that McCarthy did so only “after he knew that he was facing somebody who was going to possibly deny him being Speaker.”
Some of the members at the press conference, though, are supportive of McCarthy for Speaker — including Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), whom McCarthy appointed to the influential Republican Steering Committee, and Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), the incoming chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee.
“You're going to see a lot of sentiment across the conference to have Mayorkas removed from that job and put somebody in to do the job and do it,” Hern told reporters. “Obviously it's not going to happen instantaneously, but you have to point out that issues are out there.”
Republicans’ top driving argument for impeaching Mayorkas is that he has not kept “operational control” of the border as required by law.
When confronted by Republicans in congressional hearings, Mayorkas has maintained that the U.S. does have operational control of the country’s borders — a stance that has only further enraged critics and further fueled calls for impeachment, with Republicans accusing him of lying to Congress.
Republicans also accuse Mayorkas of improperly failing to detain migrants and improperly releasing migrants.
At the press conference, House Republicans were joined by three former Department of Homeland Security officials: cormer acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan, former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan, and former U.S. Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott.
“He has served as this administration’s chief architect of their open border policies that we know has resulted in drugs pouring across our open borders, killing Americans every single day,” Morgan said of Mayorkas.
Members of the Main Street Caucus, a group of House Republicans in favor of pragmatic governance, are urging colleagues to support House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for Speaker as he faces opposition from a handful of hard-line conservatives that threatens to keep him from securing the gavel.
“The Main Street Caucus stands unified in support of Kevin McCarthy for Speaker. We firmly urge all our colleagues in the People’s House to join us so that we can immediately begin delivering the common-sense, impactful, and conservative agenda Americans expect and deserve,” members of the caucus wrote in a Wednesday letter to colleagues, first shared with The Hill.
“A Speaker McCarthy, working closely with the Main Street Caucus and backed by the Republican Conference, presents the most direct path to the House finally answering America’s call for kitchen-table results,” the letter continued. “We are confident the gavel will only elevate his ability to effectively champion and communicate our Members’ policies and priorities. With the solid leadership team our Conference has already nominated, we will advance initiatives by finding common ground rooted in our principles – not by simply compromising beliefs.”
A total of 38 GOP House members signed the letter, led by Main Street Caucus Co-Chairs Don Bacon (Neb.), Mike Bost (Ill.) and Pete Stauber (Minn.).
It marks the second significant letter from a caucus within the House Republican Conference encouraging colleagues to support McCarthy as he works to secure enough support to win the Speakership. Last week, members of the more moderate Republican Governance Group, formerly known as the Tuesday Group, urged House Republicans to “put posturing aside” and support McCarthy for Speaker.
McCarthy was nominated to be Speaker by the House GOP conference last month, but must win a majority of all those voting on Jan. 3 in order to take the gavel. Because Republicans will have a slim majority of 222 to 212 Democrats and one vacancy, just a handful of GOP opponents could keep him from securing a majority.
Five conservative House Republicans with a reputation for embracing confrontational tactics have explicitly said or strongly indicated they will not support McCarthy on Jan. 3: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.) and Bob Good (Va.). Several others have declined to say whether they will vote for McCarthy.
Criticisms from opponents include charges that McCarthy is resistant to rules changes that would empower individual members and that he is unwilling to fully promise impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, though McCarthy has called on Mayorkas to resign or face a potential impeachment inquiry.
The Main Street letter blamed Democratic control of Congress for “a striking decline” in constituents’ quality of life.
“Now, our constituents demand viable solutions focused on lowering costs across the board, maximizing economic growth and opportunity, fiscal responsibility, safety at home and abroad, more efficient government, and freedom. This upcoming speakership election is our opportunity to gather together and light the right path for America,” the letter said.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is escalating and doubling down on several pledges about how he would run the lower chamber next year as he tries to beat back opposition from a handful of House Republicans who threaten to derail his Speakership bid.
Over the weekend, he warned that any delay in Republicans taking the gavel would put GOP priorities and his plans for his conference on hold.
“Right now, it’s actually delaying our ability to govern as we go,” McCarthy, who won the House GOP nomination for Speaker, said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “So I’m hopeful that everybody comes together, finds a way to govern together. This is what the American people want. Otherwise, we will be squandering this majority.”
Five House Republicans — Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.) and Ralph Norman (S.C.) — have said or strongly indicated that they will not vote for McCarty for Speaker on Jan. 3, when he needs support from a majority of those voting for a Speaker candidate. With Republicans heading toward a narrow majority of 222 seats to Democrats' 212 in January, the opposition threatens to keep him from the post.
McCarthy’s argument did not land with his fiercest critics, whose issues with McCarthy range from not committing to pass a slashed federal budget to calling on him to do more to empower rank-and-file members.
“‘Squandering this majority’ would be allowing a guy that the conservative movement has lambasted for years to take the reins as House Speaker,” Biggs responded in a tweet. “Leaders who lead from behind aren’t leaders.”
Here are six pledges McCarthy has made in a bid to win the Speakership:
Try to roll back IRS funding boost
The first bill from House Republicans, McCarthy announced in September, would be to “repeal 87,000 IRS agents” — a reference to an $80 billion funding boost to the IRS included in Democrats’ tax, climate and health care package signed into law earlier this year.
A 2021 Treasury Department estimate said the IRS could hire nearly 87,000 employees over a decade with the new funding, a figure that includes support staff, auditors and replacements for those who leave the agency. Republicans have repeatedly falsely said that all the 87,000 IRS hires would be “agents” and sought to use the threat to fire up midterm voters.
Such a bill would likely be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Remove certain Democrats from committee assignments
McCarthy says he will remove Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from the House Intelligence Committee and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The move is in part a response to GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) being removed from their committee posts last year over social media posts and interactions involving violence against other members. It is also a response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) vetoing two of McCarthy’s picks for the Jan. 6 committee, after which McCarthy pulled his other three selections.
The GOP leader accused Schiff, the current chair of the House Intelligence Committee, of lying to the public about investigations into former President Trump. Schiff fired back, saying that McCarthy will “misrepresent my record” and will do “whatever he needs to do to get the votes of the QAnon caucus within his conference.”
Swalwell, McCarthy said, should not sit on the House Intelligence Committee due to his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy who reportedly helped fundraise for his 2014 campaign and helped place an intern in his office. Swalwell’s office has said he provided information about the individual to the FBI.
And McCarthy has accused Omar of making antisemitic comments. Omar said in a statement that McCarthy’s threat is a “continuation of a sustained campaign against Muslim and African voices.”
Removing a member from a standing committee requires a vote of the full House.
Hard-line House conservatives are hungry for impeachments of Biden administration officials, and Mayorkas, whom they blame for the crisis at the southern border, is at the top of their list. But McCarthy has not explicitly promised to do so, saying that Republicans will not use impeachment for “political purposes.”
Instead, on a border trip just before Thanksgiving, McCarthy called on Mayorkas to resign or face House GOP investigations and a potential impeachment inquiry — his strongest comments on the topic to date.
That escalation, though, has not satisfied McCarthy's opponents.
“He had plenty of time to support impeachment articles against Mayorkas and was radio silent,” Biggs said in a tweet.
McCarthy tried to work with Democrats to create a China select committee in 2020. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Republicans say, pulled Democrats out of the plan around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Washington Post reported at the time that Democrats had concerns about the China issue being too politicized.
Dealings with China are thought to be one of the few areas where the two parties can come to some agreement in the next Congress.
End proxy voting
The pandemic-era practice of allowing House members to designate another member to vote by proxy for them will come to an end, McCarthy has said, charging that it “allows Members of Congress to get paid without ever needing to show up for work.”
Members of both parties have utilized proxy voting — which requires a letter saying the members is unable to attend in person “due to the ongoing public health emergency” — in ways that appeared to be for convenience rather than health reasons.
McCarthy took a lawsuit challenging proxy voting up to the Supreme Court, but the court in January declined to hear the case.
Pass culture war–related bills
McCarthy and House Republicans have promised to advance the "Parents Bill of Rights,” a bill crafted last year in response to frustrations about “woke” curriculum and COVID-19–related school closures that spilled over into heated school board meetings.
The bill would require school districts to post curriculum publicly, have teachers offer two in-person meetings with parents a year, have parents give consent before any medical exam at school and provide notice of any violence at school.
McCarthy has also said he would bring up a bill to define sex “solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth” for purposes of Title IX in athletics, taking aim at transgender athletes.
Like a bill to repeal the IRS funding boost, though, it is unlikely it would be taken up in the Senate.
Members of the Republican Governance Group, a more centrist caucus within the House GOP, are urging their colleagues to support House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for Speaker as he faces opponents that threaten his path to securing the gavel.
"The American people handed us the gavel, but they did so skeptically. If we do not immediately put posturing aside and focus on responsible governance, we will have failed to fulfill the great responsibility they have bestowed upon us before the 118th Congress begins,” the letter from the members of the Republican Governance Group, formerly known as the Tuesday Group, read.
“Governing is fundamentally a team sport. It comes down to a simple choice: do you want to make a point or a difference?” the letter said.
Five hard-line, confrontational conservative House Republicans have explicitly said or strongly indicated that they will not support McCarthy for Speaker on the House floor on Jan. 3, even though the House GOP Conference nominated him to be Speaker last month: Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the former chair of the House Freedom Caucus who mounted a long-shot bid for the Speakership nomination; Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.); Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.); Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.); and Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.).
With Republicans about to enter the 118th Congress with just a slim majority — around 222 Republicans to 212 Democrats — those five defectors could potentially sink his bid. Many others have not revealed whether they will support McCarthy on Jan. 3.
McCarthy needs support from a majority of House members voting for a specific Speaker candidate on Jan. 3. If all vote for a candidate, that threshold is 218, but vacancies, absences, and “present” votes can lower that threshold. All five opponents, though, indicate they will not “present.”
“This Conference cannot handcuff itself to a burning building before we gavel in the 118th Congress,” Republican Governance Group Chair Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) said in a statement. “We are the dealmakers without whom this legislative body cannot govern, and we intend to provide the American people with a working majority.”
Joyce led the letter along with Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), the group's vice chair. In total, 21 House GOP members and members-elect signed on.
Those outright opposed to or withholding support from McCarthy criticize his handling of previous votes, that he will not commit to slashing and balancing the federal budget, and that he is not completely committed to impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. McCarthy has, however, called on Mayorkas to resign or face a House GOP investigation and potential impeachment inquiry.
The House Freedom Caucus has also pushed for rules changes that, on the whole, would empower individual members and chip away at leadership’s power. McCarthy has implemented some of the proposals.
McCarthy supporters, on the other hand, praise his fundraising and candidate recruitment efforts that led the House GOP to gain seats for two years in a row, and that he has given every faction of the caucus a seat at the table.
There is also no viable consensus GOP alternative to McCarthy, making him still the favorite to ultimately win the gavel.
"Our Democratic colleagues would only be too happy if we contributed to their efforts to derail our agenda with self-inflicted snags, like rallying around our already elected leadership,” the Republican Governance Group letter said.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is expected to go to the House floor to fight for the Speakership as his GOP opponents signal their stance is hardening.
McCarthy this week started posturing for a floor showdown and turning up the heat on those withholding support.
On Newsmax on Monday, McCarthy warned that House Democrats could pick the Speaker if Republicans “play games” on the House floor on Jan. 3. He shot down a question from CNN on Tuesday on whether he would step down in the race for Speaker if he does not get support from 218 Republicans. And on Fox News Tuesday night, he warned that if he does not get a majority of Speaker votes, GOP investigative priorities cannot go forward.
“We can’t start investigating [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas. We can’t secure the border. We can’t lower the gasoline price by making us energy independent,” McCarthy said.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks with reporters at the Capitol after returning from a meeting at the White House. (Greg Nash)
McCarthy won support from more than 80 percent of the House Republican Conference for the Speakership nomination. But 31 Republicans voted against him, and with the GOP winning a slim majority — around 222 seats to around 212 for Democrats, all of whom are expected to vote for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) for Speaker — just a handful of GOP defectors on the floor could force multiple Speaker ballots or sink his bid.
A Speaker can be elected with fewer than 218 votes, as the nominee only needs support from a majority of those voting for a candidate. Vacancies, such as the seat for the late Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), who died on Monday, absences and “present” votes lower the threshold that a Speaker will have to reach, and potentially give McCarthy some wiggle room.
But in an escalation, all five of the House Republicans who have explicitly said or strongly indicated that they will not vote for McCarthy on the House floor on Jan. 3 — Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), Ralph Norman (S.C.) and Andy Biggs (Ariz.) — now say they will not vote “present” during the Speakership vote.
Biggs and Good clarified this week they will vote for an alternative candidate, taking the same position as Norman. Rosendale also said he will not vote “present” and said he could only vote for McCarthy under “extreme circumstances.”
“I’ve been a lawmaker since 2010. Never voted ‘present’ in my life. Don’t plan to start now,” Gaetz told The Hill.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has voiced opposition to McCarthy's Speakership bid in the past but has indicated that he has no plans to vote "present" during the vote. (Greg Nash)
“If Jan 3. turns into a shitshow, it will be a direct result of McCarthy denialism. He doesn’t have the votes. He never had the votes. It is time to move on and consider candidates who lack five objectors in our conference,” Gaetz said. “Kevin’s brinksmanship and stubbornness pose the greatest risk of empowering Democrats to impact the Speakership vote.”
Several other hard-line conservative lawmakers have declined to say how they plan to vote.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said he will not make his position public, and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) has only said that no one has 218 votes for Speaker right now. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has declined to disclose her thinking on the Speakership, saying she is focused on the automatic recount in her election.
There is no viable GOP alternative to McCarthy for Speaker, making him the favorite to ultimately win the contest. But even some of McCarthy’s most vocal supporters, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), worry there might be multiple floor ballots for Speaker.
“I don’t want to see that happen. I can’t guarantee that not happening right now,” Greene, a relatively recent backer of McCarthy, said.
Biggs and Good say that they think there are around 20 “hard noes” on McCarthy. Greene said she thought the universe of those leaning against McCarthy is closer to 10 members.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she believes there are around 10 GOP members who plan to vote against McCarthy. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
As those against McCarthy harden their stance, outside commentators are chiming in against the opposition. Conservative commentator Mark Levin on Tuesday called McCarthy’s opponents the “five boneheads.”
“They’re playing right into the hands of the Democrats, right into the hands of the establishment Republicans, right into the hands of the media,” Levin said.
Among the priorities of those withholding support are rules changes for the House GOP conference and House as a whole, with the Freedom Caucus proposing measures that would empower individual members. Biggs has criticized McCarthy for not promising to impeach Mayorkas, though McCarthy last week called on the Homeland Security secretary to resign or face GOP investigations and a potential impeachment inquiry.
Several members of the Freedom Caucus also appear to be preparing for a floor showdown. A group of hard-liners met with the House parliamentarian on Wednesday, Politico reported.
“We are all very interested in how this place operates, the rules that govern it, those kinds of things. You would certainly want us to be well informed, wouldn’t you?” Perry said of the meeting.
There is still time for McCarthy to change minds and forge deals. In mid-December 2018, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) struck a deal with several members who were opposed to her Speakership to win their support.
McCarthy on Tuesday brought together leaders from several factions and caucuses in the House GOP — the “five families,” he later joked — to discuss rules change proposals and procedures for a House GOP majority.
McCarthy still has time to win over members opposed to his support. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) struck a deal in mid-December 2018 with members previously opposed to her Speakership bid, helping to secure her victory. (Greg Nash)
McCarthy supporters Greene and Rep. Kevin Hern (Okla.), chair-elect for the Republican Study Committee, said they reached an agreement on a structure that would allow members to submit amendments for review if they meet a certain threshold of support among the GOP conference. In a Wednesday conference meeting, that threshold was set at 20 percent, Hern said.
The Wednesday meeting on making changes to internal House GOP rules was more cordial than before the Thanksgiving break, members said, with several proposals from the Freedom Caucus either passing or being withdrawn.
But one Freedom Caucus priority to ban earmarks, which were brought back in this Congress as “community project funding” after a decadelong ban, was overwhelmingly shot down in a secret ballot vote. Hern said that only about a quarter of the conference voted in favor of the measure.
Hern expects McCarthy to win the Speakership at the end of the day.
“Nobody worked harder than he has to get us to this point in both raising money, but going around the country. He’s done a great job,” Hern said.
