CNN
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House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy outlined some of the concessions he agreed to in campaigning for the speaker on Sunday night’s conference call, according to multiple Republican sources on the conference call. But McCarthy couldn’t say whether he would vote for the presidency, even after succumbing to some of the right’s most hardline demands.
Late Sunday night, House Republicans unveiled a rules package for the 118th Congress that formalized some of the concessions McCarthy agreed to. Additional compromises are likely in the coming days, as the House will only adopt the rules package after McCarthy selects an out-of-lockdown speaker.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter from a California Republican, he claimed the presidency and offered additional promises, including ensuring that ideological groups were better represented on committees. .
Shortly after Sunday’s call, a group of nine hardliners who outlined the demands to McCarthy last month said some of the concessions he had announced were insufficient and they still agreed with him. I sent a new letter clarifying no. said it was moving forward.
“So far, the lack of specific commitments for virtually every element of our petition leaves us with no means of measuring whether promises are kept or broken,” the member was obtained by CNN. I am writing in a letter.
The group still pushes for one member of Congress to have the power to demand a vote to overthrow the chairman, and also wants, among other things, a commitment that no leadership will be shown in the primary. McCarthy can afford to lose only four votes on the House floor, which means he still has a lot of work to do before Tuesday.
California Republicans said on a conference call Sunday that, after weeks of negotiations, the threshold for starting a vote to oust the chairman at any time, known as the chairman’s “movement to resign,” was set at five. said they agreed to set it to chair, and pitched it as a “compromise.” CNN first reported last week that he stands by that standard.
Some moderates – who fear the motion to evict will be used as a constant bludgeon over McCarthy’s head – rallied during the call and voiced their displeasure, sources said. .
South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson said he was not satisfied with the low threshold McCarthy had agreed to. If this happens, the negotiated package of rules will be removed from the agenda.
Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart put pressure on McCarthy over whether this concession on the motion to leave would earn him 218 votes. But McCarthy said in an earlier call that people were “slowly” moving in the right direction, but he didn’t directly answer.
But later in the conference call, Florida Rep. Matt Gates, one of the five voters who “strongly disagreed” with McCarthy, said he would not support McCarthy despite all the concessions. .
Florida Rep. Carlos Gimenez repeated Diaz-Balart’s question and asked McCarthy to answer. According to sources, McCarthy’s response was that he had several days to complete the transaction and needed to complete it.
New York Rep. Mike Lawler backs McCarthy if one congressman agrees to lower eviction threshold before California Democrat Nancy Pelosi changes voting power I asked Gates if he would. rule. Gaetz replied that McCarthy had refused to accept the idea, but if he made the offer now, he would consider it.
McCarthy said he disagreed with Gaetz’s characterization, arguing that the rest of the conference could not support a low threshold of one. rice field. But he asked Gates if he could be a “yes” if McCarthy went down to the limit of one, and Gates hasn’t committed yet.
The package, released late Sunday, includes empowering five Republicans to seek a vote on removing the incumbent speaker. Restore the ability to zero out salaries for civil servants. Give lawmakers 72 hours to read the bill before it is submitted to Congress. And create new selected commits to investigate the “weaponization” of the Justice Department and FBI.
The rules package does not change the process for discharge petitions that allow lawmakers to bypass leadership and bring the bill to the floor if it gets the support of 218 lawmakers.
Other items of interest: Regulations package prohibits remote hearings and markups, scraps staff unionization efforts, and allows House Ethics Committee to receive ethical complaints from the public to
Rep. Jim McGovern, the current Democratic chairman of the House Rules Committee, called the House GOP’s package of rules “a huge setback for the agency.”
“Republican leaders once again bowed to the most extreme members of their own caucuses,” Massachusetts lawmakers said in a statement Sunday.
The rules package has been billed as final, but GOP sources warn that nothing is final until it passes.
After the House has elected a speaker and sworn in its members, members vote on a package of rules that governs how the legislature operates.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
