Kevin McCarthy had to negotiate hard with the House Freedom Caucus to become Speaker of the House. One of his most important concessions was to lower the barriers to removing the acting Speaker. In the context of the debt ceiling deal, that modification is now haunting the California Republican.
Before the new House rules package was passed, expelling the Speaker involved the “leadership of a caucus or party conference offering a privileged resolution declaring the office of Speaker of the House vacant.” In other words, it involved a legislative group composed of several members of Congress presenting a motion to remove the Speaker from office by a simple majority vote, half plus one.
While negotiating with Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Ralph Norman (R-SC), and Bob Good (R-VA), among others, McCarthy agreed to lower this number to one, meaning that any Congressman, Democrat or Republican, can introduce such a resolution and force a vote to remove the Speaker from office.
“We’ll have to regroup and figure out the whole leadership arrangement again”
In February, some political analysts opined that this change would weaken whoever holds the gavel going forward, especially if they have a slim majority, as is the case with McCarthy. One dissenting Republican legislator could unseat him simply by convincing a few colleagues to join all Democrats, who presumably would go along with the resolution.
Following the debt ceiling deal he reached with Joe Biden, numerous Senate and House Republicans spoke out, claiming that too many concessions were made to Democrats.
"It's not just that every Republican should vote against this...This is a career defining vote for every Republican!" pic.twitter.com/KmAkuiPXPG
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 30, 2023
One of them, Dan Bishop (R-NC), publicly called for a vote to remove McCarthy from office. “I think it’s got to be done. I’ll decide that in conjunction with others,” he told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
Bishop was one of 20 lawmakers who withheld their support for McCarthy in the 15-vote process to choose the Speaker in January.
“I’m just fed up with the lies, I’m fed up with the lack of courage, the cowardice. And I intend to see to it that there is somebody who’s prepared to say what needs to be done,” added the congressman, visibly angered by the final product of the negotiations between the president and the Speaker, setting off alarm bells in the Speaker’s office.
Bishop appears not to be the only House Republican to consider expelling McCarthy, as others who opposed the Californian in the first place have the same dilemma.
“Let me put it this way. I think this bill indicates exactly why I have concerns about him (McCarthy) being Speaker,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said. For Bob Good (R-VA), “It is a failure of leadership for us to surrender all the leverage and all the strength that we had with the majority House and this Limit, Save, Grow bill in the 11th hour.”
Meanwhile, Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) said the debt ceiling deal could trigger a new Speaker election. “If I can’t kill it, if we can’t kill it on the floor tomorrow, then we’re going to have to then regroup and figure out the whole leadership arrangement again,” he commented on Glenn Beck’s radio show.
