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Tag: McCarthy

  • Why McConnell and McCarthy locked arms on the debt crisis

    Why McConnell and McCarthy locked arms on the debt crisis

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    McConnell’s move helps McCarthy’s negotiating position — and perhaps just as importantly, it boosts his own standing within a Senate Republican conference that has shifted rightward, a lurch that sparked the first-ever rebellion against his leadership last fall.

    McConnell said Biden isn’t the first president he’s pushed to work with a House controlled by the opposing party.

    “This is the very same advice I gave Donald Trump after the Democrats took the House. It wasn’t the first thing on their mind to negotiate with Nancy Pelosi. But they did,” McConnell said. “My advice in private is the same as I’ve been saying publicly … quit wasting time here. And in the end, the deal will be made between McCarthy and Biden.”

    Five months ago, it was impossible to imagine the reserved McConnell on the same page with the chummy McCarthy. During Biden’s first two years in office, they split on everything from gun safety to infrastructure to the billions of dollars in Ukraine aid tucked into a bipartisan spending deal. McCarthy quickly moved to repair his relationship with Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, while McConnell never spoke to Trump again.

    Their rifts created deep tension between House and Senate Republicans, who at times seemed at polar ends of the GOP as McCarthy positioned himself to win the speakership and McConnell steered the party away from Trump. Democrats privately believe McConnell will jump in to help save the day on the fast-approaching debt deadline, but conservatives see him as joined with McCarthy “until hell freezes,” as Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) put it.

    So when lawmakers get to the White House on Tuesday, expect McCarthy to do most of the talking for Republicans.

    Asked if she anticipated a quiet McConnell during their slated meeting, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) replied: “Yes. He’s like: ‘I’m here to support McCarthy.’”

    As McConnell and McCarthy set up Tuesday’s meeting during separate phone calls with Biden, the two Republicans spoke several times to coordinate their message, according to a person with direct knowledge of their talks.

    Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, replied to questions about McConnell’s call with Biden by stating the administration does not comment on private discussions with congressional leaders. He added, however, that “avoiding default is a critical priority for our economy — one that presidents from both parties have acknowledged is non-negotiable.”

    Despite McConnell’s and McCarthy’s clear personality differences, Republicans argue that the two are more alike than not: Both are political animals focused on their legacies who maintain a close read on their party and members. McConnell drolly surmised that McCarthy “has an interesting set of players” to deal with in the House, from the conservative Freedom Caucus to moderates.

    McCarthy’s closest allies see his relationship with the Senate leader maturing. Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) described “a better line of communication now. And that has made a big difference.”

    “Where the McConnell and McCarthy teams have come to an understanding is first with communication — better communication — and a mutual recognition of their different challenges,” McHenry said.

    And Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), who once interned for the Senate Republican leader, recalls a longtime McConnell-ism: that being a Senate leader is “kinda like being the undertaker at a cemetery.”

    “You’re over everyone, but nobody’s listening,” Barr recounted, describing McConnell as “empathetic to Speaker McCarthy’s job, which is also about the difficulty of bringing together a lot of independent-minded people.”

    The duo is converging on the crucial issue of Ukraine aid, too, following a rocky stretch. After McCarthy rebuked a Russian reporter over the war during an overseas trip, McConnell even took to the Senate floor to praise the Californian.

    Scott Jennings, a Kentucky-based GOP strategist and longtime McConnell confidante, said that gesture was a sign of “respect and support.”

    McConnell has navigated past fiscal fights where the political odds looked stacked against him, but Republicans who are close with both leaders say that mutual destruction would result if he steps out of line with McCarthy now. In fact, McCarthy could lose his gavel, causing chaos in the House, if McConnell were to negotiate a side deal with Democrats.

    “Whether it’s political ideology or pure pragmatism, [Senate leaders] recognize that a deal that’s not good with House conservatives is not making it through,” said first-term conservative Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).

    McCarthy’s House already passed a package of blunt spending cuts coupled with a one-year debt ceiling increase that Republicans are using as leverage against Democrats who vow they’ll only accept a straightforward hike. Tuesday’s meeting with Biden, McCarthy, McConnell, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will be this spring’s first tangible move to break the deadlock.

    “If there is a path forward, it’s going to require serious and swift cooperation with Sens. Schumer and McConnell, Leader Jeffries and Speaker McCarthy. And that’s partly why I think there’s so much anxiety about the possibility of default,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally.

    Republicans are almost universally insistent that, in light of the House GOP’s passage of its plan, the next step is Biden’s to take. They’re feeling especially confident after McCarthy proved he could corral his party, with only a handful of votes to spare, in favor of raising a borrowing limit that many promised never to touch.

    McCarthy may feel a squeeze if the Democratic-controlled Senate sends back its own legislation, but that would require nine or more GOP votes to break a filibuster.

    Despite the growing McConnell-McCarthy warmth, House conservatives still harbor strong suspicion of the Senate GOP leader due to his opposition to Trump and support for multiple bipartisan bills last Congress. That group of McConnell skeptics includes some of the same members who initially blocked McCarthy’s path to the speakership.

    “Nothing McConnell does surprises me; his actions are against everything [and] everyone who promotes conservatism,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) wrote in a text message.

    Others in the bloc of 20 who voted against McCarthy during the speaker race, such as Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), bashed McConnell in the wake of the Senate’s approval of a $1.7 trillion spending bill in December. In light of that display, some Senate Republicans also believe it’s McCarthy turn to take arrows for cutting a tough deal, according to one person familiar with the Kentucky Republican’s thinking.

    McConnell was blunt in seeing no upside to working with Biden on a side agreement, even after steering his party out of similar debt ceiling impasses just two years ago.

    Any such accord with the president, McConnell said in the interview, “would produce nothing. Because the House of Representatives is not going to pass a bipartisan debt ceiling deal negotiated, presumably, with Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer.”

    So does McConnell have any advice for McCarthy on future negotiation with Biden, whom McConnell served with for decades?

    “[McCarthy] doesn’t need any advice from me about how to handle himself. I just think that the solution here is so obvious,” McConnell said. “This is going to be decided when the speaker and the president reach an agreement.”

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Biden calls McCarthy ‘honest’ and himself wise as debt ceiling talks heat up

    Biden calls McCarthy ‘honest’ and himself wise as debt ceiling talks heat up

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    Biden declined the chance to take a personal jab at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, choosing instead to call him an “honest man.” The two have negotiated formally just once, though McCarthy has been pushing for a followup, and Biden will meet with him and the three other main congressional leaders next week. Instead of teeing off on the speaker, Biden criticized the deal McCarthy cut with his fellow House Republicans to get a debt ceiling hike through their chamber.

    “I think he’s in the position, well, he had to make a deal and that was pretty — you know, 15 votes. Fifteen votes that where he had — just about sold away everything that he — at the far, far right,” he said. “There’s the Republican Party and there’s the MAGA Republicans, and the MAGA Republicans really have put him in a position where in order to stay speaker he has to agree — he’s agreed to things that, maybe he believes, but are just extreme.”

    No workarounds… yet

    The president said he wasn’t ready to try a workaround for raising the debt ceiling, at least not yet. Pressed by Ruhle as to whether he would argue that the debt limit was unconstitutional (as his aides are reportedly considering), he said he had not “gotten there yet.”

    “Here’s the deal, I think that — first of all, this is not your father’s Republican Party. This is a different group. And I think that we have to make it clear to the American people that I am prepared to negotiate in detail with their budget,” he said. “How much are you going to spend? How much are you going to tax? Where can we cut?”

    Age is but a number

    It wasn’t all budget and debt talk. Ruhle also pressed Biden about running for a second term when he would be nearly 82 at his reelection. She noted that no one at a Fortune 500 company would consider hiring a CEO at that age. So why, she asked, would voters give him a job?

    “Because I have acquired a hell of a lot of wisdom and know more than the vast majority of people,” said Biden. “And I’m more experienced than anybody that’s ever run for the office. And I think I’ve proven myself to be honorable as well as also effective.”

    All the president’s troops

    Biden has faced criticism — from both the right and left — for his administration’s decision to send 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border ahead of next week’s lifting of the Trump-era health policy known as Title 42. Biden defended the move in the interview, saying more resources are needed to address the influx of migrants and that he has sought help from Congress.

    “We’re in a situation now where those 1,500 [troops] at the border, they’re not there to enforce the law, they’re there to free up the border agents that need to be on the border,” Biden said. “And we’re having another thousand people coming in. There are asylum judges to make judgments, to move things along.”

    To Hunter’s defense

    The president’s son, Hunter Biden, has been embroiled in legal problems. Prosecutors are reportedly close to determining whether the younger Biden will be charged with gun and tax violations, and his defense team has reportedly met with prosecutors.

    Biden argued to Ruhle that any federal charges filed against Hunter would not affect his presidency.

    “It will not because he has done nothing wrong. And I’m proud of him,” he said.

    Beat the Press

    When Ruhle pointed out that “sentiment in this country … is not very good,” Biden complained of the negative coverage in the press.

    “All they’ve heard is negative news for years,” he said. “Everything is negative. And I’m not being critical of the press. If you turn on the television, the only way you’re going to get a hit is if there’s something negative.”

    2020 rematch?

    When asked about his past remarks about the “soul of America,” Biden took the opportunity to take a jab at former President Donald Trump, whom he defeated in 2020 — and who currently leads in Republican primary polls. But Biden did not identify Trump by name.

    “We can’t let — we cannot let this election be one where the same man who was president four years ago becomes president again,” he said.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • How McCarthy could pick off centrist Dems with 4 debt-limit ideas

    How McCarthy could pick off centrist Dems with 4 debt-limit ideas

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    On several occasions during debt-limit negotiations over the last decade, the unpredictable fallout of a looming deadline has helped persuade dozens of lawmakers from each party to begrudgingly support concessions they didn’t love. This time, ideas like beefing up work requirements for food assistance programs aren’t gaining the bipartisan appeal Republicans might have hoped for, while other proposals — like easing permitting for energy projects — might attract enough interest among Democrats to get added to a final deal.

    Here’s a breakdown of the particular policy areas in the House Republican bill that might offer an opening for a bipartisan deal, with a clear-eyed assessment of how realistic those hopes really are:

    Energy permitting

    A sizable share of lawmakers in both parties agree that it takes too long to get permits for energy project construction in the U.S. So House Republicans’ push to streamline permitting rules just might have legs.

    But what an agreement would look like, exactly, remains a big question. And Democrats remain resistant to linking energy policy to the debt-limit debate.

    “This may be one of the few things we can actually accomplish in this Congress,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said. He added that it’s “very clear” Republicans are focused on permitting for oil and gas pipelines, instead of electric transmission lines — an emphasis Democrats could shift.

    “They are just out of step with where the economy and country are,” Heinrich said of House GOP lawmakers. “That’s hopefully where the Senate comes in and rebalances.”

    Worried that green perks could go to waste from the party-line tax and climate law they cleared last year, many Democrats want the federal government to make it easier to connect clean energy to the grid. Progressives are reluctant to shorten the length of environmental reviews for energy projects, however, for fear that could hurt low-income communities and communities of color.

    Details: The House Republican package would streamline permitting reviews for energy projects and mines. But it’s also chock full of partisan priorities like protecting fracking, forcing the sale of oil and gas leases, killing tax benefits for green energy projects and pooh-poohing Biden’s decision to kill the Keystone XL pipeline.

    Sympathizers: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has tried to rally bipartisan support for overhauling energy permitting rules. But he failed last year, as progressive lawmakers argued against changing the rules for environmental reviews and Republicans spurned him for supporting Democrats’ trademark climate law.

    In the House, when the chamber first voted in March on the package of energy policies that got rolled into the debt limit package, four Democrats joined as “yeas.” Those supporters included Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, who hail from oil-and-gas-rich Texas, as well as centrists Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Jared Golden of Maine.

    Work requirements

    House Republicans are trying to get a handful of swing-state Democrats in the Senate to support tougher work requirements for food assistance programs. But most have resoundingly rejected the idea.

    Details: The debt limit bill House Republicans passed last week includes provisions that would expand existing work requirements for the nation’s largest food aid program, often referred to by its acronym of SNAP, along with other emergency aid that low-income families can use to buy food.

    Specifically, it requires so-called “able-bodied adults without dependents” who receive SNAP to continue meeting work requirements until they’re 55 years old, rather than the current age limit at 49.

    Sympathizers: Manchin has signaled he could be open to beefing up work requirements, potentially backing tighter rules for people who are “capable and able to do it.” House Republicans are quick to highlight Biden’s own embrace of welfare reform during the Clinton administration in the 1990s, when the position was less fraught among Democrats and Biden was a sitting senator — but the stricter work rules getting pushed by today’s GOP go beyond those.

    Spending caps

    Democrats have insisted that they’re ready to haggle over federal funding for the fiscal year that kicks off on Oct. 1 — just not with the Treasury Department’s borrowing ability at stake.

    In order for that to happen, though, Republicans would have to agree to separate government funding caps that aren’t tied to debt-ceiling talks. And that would amount to a major shift from the GOP’s current demand for $130 billion in spending cuts in exchange for a vote to lift the debt limit.

    If those talks get decoupled, it’s plausible that both sides could reach an agreement on military spending, since there’s already broad bipartisan support for ensuring the Pentagon gets enough money to at least keep pace with inflation.

    Democrats would never sign off on the domestic spending cuts that GOP leaders are seeking. But it’s possible that they could cut a deal with a handful of Republicans — think centrists, purple-state members and appropriators — to keep non-defense funding essentially stagnant, pairing small cuts with increases elsewhere to rein in spending.

    Details: The House debt limit bill would cap spending at $1.47 trillion for the upcoming fiscal year, rolling back the clock by two years on federal funding levels. Then for a decade, funding would be allowed to grow by 1 percent every year.

    Sympathizers: A slew of moderate Democrats in both chambers have expressed support for fiscal restraint in the abstract, including long-term strategies for stabilizing the national debt like the 2010 budget plan that proposed trillions of dollars in tax increases and spending cuts.

    “I am certainly not opposed to working on ways to reduce the debt. I am very, very, very opposed to putting the full faith and credit of the country at risk,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who faces a tough reelection in a red state, has said. “So you know, if we’re talking about doing something like [the 2010 plan], I not only think that’s a good idea, put me on it.”

    Ending student loan relief

    It’s hard to see Biden negotiating away a major domestic policy achievement that his administration has so vigorously defended in court. Some have even credited the president’s student debt relief plan, announced in the months leading up to the midterm elections, with helping limit Republican gains in the House last November.

    A few moderate Democrats have criticized the president’s embrace of mass forgiveness of student loan debt, however, and have signaled openness to a separate Republican effort to nix the relief.

    Details: The House GOP bill would overturn Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, which promises up to $20,000 in debt relief per borrower, even as the president’s plan remains in limbo ahead of a challenge at the Supreme Court.

    The Republican bill would also block the administration’s new income-driven repayment plan that’s designed to lower monthly payments. And it would permanently curtail the Education Department’s power to create new policies that increase the taxpayer cost of the student loan program.

    Sympathizers: When the president rolled out his student loan forgiveness plan last summer, Manchin called it “excessive,” arguing that people need to “earn it” through public service like working for the federal government. Other politically vulnerable Democrats have also spoken against the plan, including Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Michael Bennet of Colorado, as well as Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire.

    Meredith Lee Hill and Josh Siegel contributed to this report.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Kevin McCarthy forcefully defended aid to Ukraine in remarks following his speech to Israel’s Knesset.

    Kevin McCarthy forcefully defended aid to Ukraine in remarks following his speech to Israel’s Knesset.

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    “Our values are your values. Our heritage is your heritage. Our dreams are your dreams,” he said.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Kevin McCarthy forcefully defended aid to Ukraine in remarks following his speech to Israel’s Knesset.

    Kevin McCarthy forcefully defended aid to Ukraine in remarks following his speech to Israel’s Knesset.

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    “I support aid for Ukraine. I do not support what your country has done to Ukraine,” he told a Russian reporter.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • How McCarthy mollified the right on his debt plan — for now

    How McCarthy mollified the right on his debt plan — for now

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    “The expectation was, moderates in the House have got to, at some point in time, come the way of really where I think Republicans are nationally: more conservative. Stop the spending spree,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who attended the weekly House-Senate dinner meetings at the spacious Capitol Hill townhouse of his Florida Republican colleague.

    Though McCarthy and his leadership were able to satisfy their conservative wing, it came with big sacrifices that nearly blew up their plans along the way. And it’s unclear that the fractious House GOP conference can maintain even that level of unity through the next stage of the fight — dealmaking with Democrats.

    Still, conservatives are rejoicing. Another dinner is scheduled for Wednesday night after passage. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), an attendee of the weekly Scott dinners who’s long pushed his party to take a hard line in debt negotiations, said conservatives’ early maneuvering helped strengthen their hand in the House GOP talks.

    “You can’t do this if you just stick to a position and say, ‘My way or the highway.’ You’ve got to go convince people. We put forward proposals that, I think, convinced people that this is the right approach,” Roy said, stressing that the group was working “in concert” with the rest of the GOP conference.

    Roy later helped draft the House GOP’s debt bill, a grab bag of conservative policy dreams, as part of intra-conference meetings that McCarthy’s team dubbed the “five families” meetings. That reference to “The Godfather” mafiosos aptly captures the mutual mistrust that sometimes lingers among his members.

    Yet those early weeks of maneuvering by the congressional right paid off, as outlined in interviews with more than a dozen House members, senators and aides. By the time McCarthy released his plan, many of his typically resistant conservatives were on board with a leadership spending plan that largely reflected their goals: stricter work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps, Covid aid clawbacks and across-the-board spending cuts to discretionary spending.

    The Freedom Caucus stalwarts who attended the Scott-hosted meetings — Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Matt Rosendale of Montana, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Roy — also coordinated their work with Johnson and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), all fiscal hardliners in the upper chamber. House conservatives then made their pitch to GOP leaders, who gave them unusual face time and sway over the crafting of the debt bill.

    “It largely fits what we thought was necessary to save the country in December, what we thought the speaker fight should be about,” said Russ Vought, a Trump adminisration budget official who worked closely on budget plans with the Freedom Caucus.

    Hours before the final tweaks to the plan early Wednesday morning, many Freedom Caucus members were voicing support for it at their weekly dinner meeting on Tuesday night. The exception was Biggs, who got worked up over the bill during that dinner, according to a Republican familiar with the discussions. He took to TV and likened its effect on the debt to driving off a cliff, only at a lower speed than Democrats’ plan. Biggs voted no.

    The meetings and the list

    McCarthy’s team relied on aggressive outreach to steer the massive debt bill past its narrow margin of House control. Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and his deputy, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), held dozens of private meetings and dinners over months that every member of the conference was invited to — including the Freedom Caucus. Leaders spent months compiling a list of every member’s debt demands, and potential objections, in order to find a middle ground.

    Last month, Emmer shared his tally with aides to from McCarthy and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.). Over the coming days, it would become a full framework; on the final day of March, Emmer was walking alongside McCarthy on their way back from a press conference on the GOP energy bill when the Minnesotan handed over his final product.

    “‘I think this is going to get you your 218,’” Emmer recalled telling McCarthy. “He looked at me and said, ‘go with it.’”

    After party leaders unveiled their debt framework last week, McCarthy invited a group of Freedom Caucus members to air their complaints in his office — and not just the members who were privately threatening to take down the bill. Those who attended later gave the speaker high marks: It was more engagement than conservatives were used to seeing.

    Perry, the House Freedom Caucus chair who also attended the Scott meetings, recalled McCarthy’s message as: “‘Look, we’re not where we need to be. We’re not where we want to be. And we got to get there.’” According to one attendee, Perry said during the meetings that it would be easier to whip up support for the bill if he were not a public yes — even though he supported it at the time.

    Even Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla), long one of McCarthy’s biggest antagonists, said he felt leadership was listening. “The leadership just picked up the House Freedom Caucus plan and helped us convert it into the legislative text,” he said. (Gaetz later voted no.) The plan quickly picked up support from swing district first-term members to veteran appropriators to fiscal hawks.

    “We thought we were golden,” said one senior Republican involved in the deliberations. “We were in a good spot.”

    …Then more demands

    That goodwill didn’t last, however. Ultimately, a smaller group of Freedom Caucus members added one more demand to the pile — axing major provisions of Democrats’ marquee bill as part of the Republican plan. It was no simple tweak, as McCarthy and his team repeatedly explained to those disgruntled conservatives.

    Making that change, as leadership predicted, sparked a new fight within the conference as Midwestern Republicans argued that expanding the repeal of last year’s Democratic bill would shortchange their home states’ thriving ethanol industry and have little chance of actually becoming law.

    After two days of insisting he wouldn’t bend, McCarthy ultimately relented to the eight Midwesterners. GOP leaders made a key change to satisfy the entire Iowa delegation, as well as members from states like Minnesota and Missouri. Some Republicans questioned why one of their own leaders, the Minnesotan Emmer, allowed the language to be added in the first place.

    “If I weren’t the whip, I would have been the loudest voice of the bunch,” Emmer said in a Wednesday interview, praising the change and noted he’d been unaware of the problem that existed in the bill: “I didn’t realize this until they told me yesterday, that they had incorrectly included pre-existing law.”

    GOP leaders couldn’t stop the kowtowing there, as more rogue conservatives made their own threats. McCarthy was ultimately forced to throw another bone to the right, accelerating the bill’s cuts to federal food stamps and other benefits.

    ‘No changes’

    Party leaders also fielded requests for a huge array of demands for floor votes on bills and holding specific hearings that had nothing to do with debt. McCarthy promised Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) that she could take the lead on a balanced budget amendment bill with his support — not to mention offering to give her a floor vote on bills related to women’s access to reproductive health and child care services, as well as an active shooter alert bill.

    McCarthy met with Mace on Wednesday as she remained opposed, one of a half-dozen meetings the speaker held with his members this week in a mad dash to passage. Rosendale and Scott authored a joint op-ed on Wednesday backing the bill — a sign that even the staunchest conservatives were now on board.

    “I’ve never voted for a debt ceiling increase,” Scott said. “To do one, we’ve got to get some structural change.”

    The horse-trading over the GOP’s initial debt plan may be nothing compared to what comes next. Sometime before mid-June, Republicans will need to pass a debt plan that can actually become law with the backing of a Democratic Senate and White House.

    Already, some Freedom Caucus members are urging McCarthy not to budge.

    Speaking to reporters after addressing his colleagues at a private Wednesday meeting, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) warned McCarthy not to “come back when they call 911 at the last hour, which any negotiator will do — run it out and say the sky is falling.”

    “No changes to the bill,” Norman later recalled telling the speaker. If the debt crisis becomes an economic disaster, he added, Democrats should “be responsible.”



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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Here’s who McCarthy needs to convince for his debt bill

    Here’s who McCarthy needs to convince for his debt bill

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    Locked in a months-long stalemate with the president, McCarthy has said this week’s House GOP plan is intended to bring Biden to the negotiating table. But first, Republicans need to pass their measure — with just four votes to spare on the floor.

    “If there are any last-minute concerns, the speaker and his team know who those are and he’s addressing those,” Republican Study Committee Chair Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) said, predicting the conference would come together in time to vote Wednesday.

    Here are the main blocs of objectors that Republican leaders have grappled with over the last 24 hours.

    Conservatives

    McCarthy received a surprising show of support from a corner of the conference that is known to upend him at every turn: The House Freedom Caucus.

    On Wednesday morning, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) stood before the conference and tried to sell the bill to his colleagues, explaining why he was supporting it and encouraging them to unanimously support it. In response, the opinionated Roy received a large round of applause — which one Republican member, speaking on condition of anonymity, cheekily noted is not the reaction that the gadfly Texan usually gets.

    But Roy wasn’t alone. Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) spoke of the bill positively, as did Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), and Bob Good (R-Va.). All five of these members who stood up and spoke Wednesday morning were among the 20 who initially opposed McCarthy as speaker at the start of this Congress.

    Yet the Freedom Caucus is hardly mollified for good. Its members are warning the speaker that they don’t want to see him bend when the Democratic-controlled Senate overhauls what the House GOP plans to send across the Capitol.

    “I told [McCarthy] at the mic: ‘Don’t come back when they call 911 at the last hour, which any negotiator will do — run it out and say the sky is falling. No changes to the bill,” said Norman, before adding that Democrats should “be responsible” for any resulting economic disaster.

    Midwesterners

    In a major win, GOP leaders have successfully locked down the votes of nearly a dozen Midwestern holdouts who had objected to parts of the bill affecting ethanol producers in their home states.

    Roughly eight Midwestern Republicans — hailing primarily from Iowa, as well as Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri — had privately threatened to oppose the bill if leadership didn’t roll back their plans to cut benefits for certain biofuels. The latest plan does still repeal tax credits for biodiesel and some other clean fuels, but GOP leaders revised the measure so that companies already locked into contracts can still use the perk.

    All of those initially skeptical Republicans now appeared to be on board.

    “In the spirit of Caitlin Clark, we’re going to fight, fight, fight for Iowa. And I think we came out ahead on this,” Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) said, name-checking this year’s March Madness basketball superstar from his home state.

    Wild cards

    Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) is still in the “no” column, for now, arguing the bill doesn’t do enough to pay down the debt and kvetching that McCarthy’s allies missed a meeting with him that was scheduled for Tuesday.

    “It doesn’t have anything to do with them not showing up. I just don’t like being taken for granted,” Burchett said. “I waited 33 minutes, and that is enough.”

    But the Tennessee Republican is heaping praise on McCarthy, whom he said has the unenviable job of trying to piece together 218 votes from a razor-thin conference. And a person familiar with internal conversations said Burchett’s colleagues were still trying to work on him during the conference meeting — though he left the room reiterating that he was a no.

    Burchett isn’t alone in his concerns about the debt. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said Wednesday that she is “leaning no” but that she is in talks with leadership and “the ball is in their court.”

    Meanwhile, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is playing coy about how he will vote but said he was frustrated by the middle-of-the-night deal-cutting, and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) remains a “lean no.” Leadership did change the bill to incorporate Gaetz’s demand for a speedier implementation of beefed-up work requirements for certain federal assistance, but Biggs is pushing to return spending levels to fiscal year 2019 levels.

    Meredith Lee Hill contributed.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • McCarthy renegotiates GOP debt bill in dead of night

    McCarthy renegotiates GOP debt bill in dead of night

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    Several of the GOP holdouts with ethanol concerns signaled overnight they would flip their votes to yes given the changes, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

    “Midwestern members made some good progress tonight,” one of the members involved in the talks said, speaking on condition of anonymity. This Republican cited the securing of “five critical wins for biofuels.”

    “People were very pleased with this amendment,” echoed another Republican familiar with the conversations.

    While it remains unclear if the wee-hour changes are enough to secure final passage on the floor, which Republicans are aiming for later Wednesday, McCarthy has regained momentum heading into a morning House GOP conference meeting that could help seal the fate of the bill.

    Since McCarthy can only stand to lose four Republican votes assuming full attendance, wrangling all his members has been no easy task. In the end, GOP leaders agreed to changes that are designed to appease nearly all of their holdouts.

    The amended proposal accelerates changes to work requirements for those receiving federal benefits, including food stamps, to 2024, a change intended to satisfy a small group of conservatives that includes Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Starting in September, states would be barred from saving up unused exemptions under the SNAP food assistance program and in October additional constraints on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program would kick in.

    Major portions of the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law last summer would be eliminated as well, including $1 billion to boost the adoption of building codes for energy-efficient construction, $5 billion for loans to back energy infrastructure projects, $1.9 billion in grants to improve transportation access to neighborhoods, $200 million for National Park System maintenance projects and $5 billion in grants for reducing climate pollution.

    And the revised bill would still repeal the tax credits on clean fuels, but would now include an exception to allow the tax perk to continue for those in binding contracts or locked into investments for sustainable aviation fuel or for producing other “clean” fuel before April 19. The amendment would also kill changes in the incentive structure for renewable diesel, second generation biofuel, carbon dioxide sequestration and biodiesel.

    Still, McCarthy still may have some work left to do.

    As of Tuesday evening, at least two GOP lawmakers were declared no’s for different reasons: Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.). In addition, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) has signaled he may oppose the bill. Gaetz, a perennial leadership gadfly, predicted before the late-hour deal that leaders was facing “at least” eight GOP no votes on the debt measure.

    Mace argued to reporters that McCarthy’s debt ceiling proposal didn’t address balancing the federal budget and that it “doesn’t really tackle spending.” Burchett, meanwhile, told POLITICO that he is a decided “no” vote after he was stood up by someone in leadership during a planned meeting on Wednesday.

    “The reality is: I’m a no vote and just don’t take me for granted,” he said.

    Biggs, meanwhile, described himself as a “lean no” and warned that discussions “might have gone beyond the place” to get him to a yes — arguing that Republicans should return to fiscal year 2019 spending. The Arizona Republican is part of a conservative block, which also includes Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), who have been pushing McCarthy to go further in his opening bid, according to people familiar with their thinking.

    In a sign of the bigger potential headache awaiting McCarthy if he didn’t make changes: House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) and other members of his group were publicly warning that they were undecided on the bill as they pushed to tighten work requirements for government programs. In addition to wanting to speed up their implementation, some conservatives were also looking to beef up the number of hours recipients had to work per week from 20 to 30.

    “I’d love to see some changes on the work requirements. I want to see people going to work for, like, more than just a hobby,” Perry said.

    Perry, though, declined to say if he had enough votes to sink the legislation if it wasn’t changed, quipping: “That’s for me to know and for you to see on the board.”

    Meredith Lee Hill and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • McCarthy struggles to lock down votes for debt plan

    McCarthy struggles to lock down votes for debt plan

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    “This week, we will pass” the debt bill, McCarthy declared to reporters after a full day of meetings.

    “We’re done negotiating,” added Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), a member of GOP leadership, while projecting confidence that “the whole Republican conference is going to get on board.”

    The GOP plan, which includes across-the-board spending cuts, stricter rules for social safety net programs and energy production incentives, has largely earned cheers across the conference despite zero expectations that it will become law. Republicans have nonetheless insisted that this week’s debt bill is their best chance to restart stagnant talks with President Joe Biden ahead of a deadline that could come as soon as June.

    But with a small margin of error, and potential absences among the GOP ranks, they’ll need near-unanimity among his conference to avoid an embarrassing setback that would undercut Republican efforts to force Biden to come to the negotiating table.

    Already, two Republicans went on record Tuesday night saying they’ll oppose the bill: Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.). And Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) said he is a “lean no.“

    Burchett, for his part, praised McCarthy but said that he hadn’t heard from the California Republican. Instead, he heard from his team who scheduled a meeting with the Tennessee Republican — but then skipped it.

    “I’m not going flip a vote because of my ego, but … just don’t take me for granted dude,” Burchett said.

    Underscoring the fluidity, Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.) declined to say, after meeting with McCarthy, if he would support the GOP debt bill or how many of his members might defect.

    “I don’t know what might change. I don’t know right now what might change and so I’m waiting to see,” he said.

    Perry is amongst a group of conservatives who want to boost work requirements up to 30 hours per week — up from 20 hours in the current plan. Members of the Freedom Caucus are expected to discuss the debt plan during a meeting on Tuesday night.

    Other conservatives, including Reps. Eli Crane (Ariz.), Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Biggs, have also urged McCarthy to go further in his opening bid, according to people familiar with their thinking and public statements.

    Still, the largest contingent of Republicans rebelling against their leaders’ plan is pushing to roll back certain tax incentives — specifically for biodiesel — that threatens to hurt their home states’ bottom line. A group of those members, mostly from the Midwest, have demanded changes to the bill, with many telling leadership they remain undecided.

    McCarthy met with two of those fence-sitters, Iowa Reps. Ashley Hinson and Randy Feenstra, early Tuesday afternoon and plans to meet with others later in the day. Both Feenstra and Hinson declined to say after their meetings if they would back the bill.

    Additionally, two of the holdouts, Reps. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) and Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.), submitted amendments to strike the parts of the bill that would repeal tax credits for biodiesel and other renewable energy sources. Some members debated internally with their teams into Tuesday evening as to whether they could support either amendment and then vote yes on the final bill — even if the amendment were to fail, which it’s likely to do, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Several members appeared to be open to the option.

    The most dug-in members on the ethanol issue include the entire Iowa House delegation — Feenstra, Hinson and Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn — along with Reps. Brad Finstad and Fischbach of Minnesota, Van Orden and Mark Alford of Missouri, according to three Republicans involved in the talks. Some members from Illinois, Nebraska and Indiana have also raised concerns, but they’re not considered major threats by GOP leaders at this point.

    On the centrist side, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said Tuesday he’s a yes on the bill, but added: “There are some areas where we’re going to have to hold our nose. But we also know what we got to get something across the net.”

    When asked about a potential Wednesday vote, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), a leadership ally, said: “Hard to tell when the stew gets done cooking,” but predicted the conference is in a “good spot” to vote this week. The House is scheduled to recess next week.

    GOP leaders have continually projected confidence in their ability to keep their conference together, avoiding a repeat of January’s floor drama as McCarthy toiled through 15 ballots to win the top gavel.

    “We’re gonna be good, we’re gonna pass it tomorrow,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

    Leadership is taking the position that it’s this bill or nothing. One senior House Republican, familiar with the discussions, said Tuesday: “We got to present this as a binary choice, either you’re voting with Kevin or you’re voting against Kevin.”

    On the other side of the Capitol, Senate Budget Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said he wouldn’t be surprised if Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is forced to break the debt-limit stalemate between McCarthy and Biden. Whitehouse predicted that the minority leader might get involved once pressure intensifies from Republican donors over relieving the economic pain of a potential default.

    “At the end of the day, something will occur in the Senate. I just don’t think the conditions for that have yet been set,” he said. “Mitch McConnell has brokered deadlocks before, and I think that remains a possibility.”

    Caitlin Emma contributed to this report.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • ‘We will pass it’: McCarthy whipping debt limit bill

    ‘We will pass it’: McCarthy whipping debt limit bill

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    Still, the speaker can only lose four Republicans and still pass his debt limit legislation. Most House Republicans are on board, but McCarthy’s leadership team remains short of the 218 votes it needs for passage. Conversations continued over the weekend to try and bring stragglers into the “yes” camp.

    Even if McCarthy is able to push his debt limit bill to House approval, the legislation is dead-on-arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Instead, the GOP debt bill is effectively a messaging tool for Republicans in their push for talks with President Joe Biden, who has thus far insisted on a no-strings-attached increase of the debt limit.

    The Treasury Department has already been using “extraordinary measures” for months to hold off a default while an unclear “X-date” looms. But there could be more clarity soon: The Congressional Budget office and the Bipartisan Policy Center are planning to release updated projections the second week of May.

    Agitation for changes to the legislation began almost as soon as the bill text was released last week, including a higher bar for work requirements for Medicaid and food assistance programs and a sooner start date. As written, the measure would require Medicaid recipients to work 80 hours per month, or 20 hours per week.

    “Work Requirements in the House debt limit bill must begin in 2024, not 2025 (as is currently drafted). The reason we demanded 72 hours to review legislation is so we could identify and fix issues with specifics precisely like this. Let’s Get to Work!” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) wrote on Twitter over the weekend.

    Gaetz was in a meeting last Thursday with McCarthy’s leadership team, Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and leaders of different factions of the conference, discussing both work requirements and the general temperature across the conference.

    The elimination of certain tax credits, from ethanol to biofuels, is another source of stress for some members, but confidence that those wouldn’t survive any White House deal has dialed down the concerns.

    Other bill components include the claw-back of upsent pandemic funds and IRS funding for customer service and finding tax cheats, a cap on spending to levels from fiscal year 2022, a roll back energy tax credits from Inflation Reduction Act and tighter work requirements for recipients of food stamps and Medicaid benefits. As written, it would raise the debt limit through March of 2024 or until the debt grows to $32.9 trillion, whichever comes first.

    The House Rules Committee takes up the bill Tuesday afternoon, a precursor to a floor vote. Should McCarthy need more time to whip votes, the House, which does not return from its weekend recess until Tuesday, is scheduled to be in on Friday.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )