by WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted Wednesday to pass a bill to raise the debt limit, cut spending and reverse key pieces of President Joe Biden’s agenda after making a series of of concessions overnight to win over the stubborn holdouts of the Republican Party.
The GOP debt package is dead by reaching the Democratic-led Senate, and Biden has also issued a veto threat, saying Congress should raise the debt ceiling without conditions.
But the bill’s passage by a vote of 217 to 215 gives Chairman Kevin McCarthy a small and much-needed symbolic victory, underscoring his ability to rally his small, often boisterous majority. Republicans hope that uniting behind the debt ceiling plan will pressure Biden and Democrats to begin negotiations just two months before a possible default on the nation’s debt.
“It is not the end of the road, but it is a great personal and political victory for the speaker who made it. He got a lot of people to vote for a debt ceiling increase that he had never done before,” Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, a top appropriator and McCarthy ally, said in an interview.
“And also pressure the Senate to come to the negotiating table. They can’t pass a clean debt ceiling,” Cole added, referring to the Democrats’ demand that legislation to increase the debt limit be free of any additional policy. “They know it, and that leads the president to do it.”
McCarthy faced initial skepticism from members of swing districts, as well as from reluctant Midwesterners who were concerned about a reduction in ethanol funding, and from conservatives who wanted changes like tougher job requirements for programs. of security networks.
But over a 24-hour period beginning Tuesday, the speaker and his leadership team worked frantically to address their concerns, rewrite some provisions and cast a handful of “no” votes that threatened to wreck the bill.
The adjustments won over a small bloc of “corn belt” Republicans from Iowa and other states who feared the GOP package could repeal ethanol tax credits, including those in the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, that benefited their constituents.
“In the spirit of caitlin-clarkwe’re going to fight, fight, fight for Iowa, and we got through this … The Iowa delegation stood together,” said Rep. Zach Nunn, one of the Iowa Republicans who met with McCarthy on Tuesday.
“This is a massive turnaround from where we were just 24 hours ago.”
Separately, McCarthy and the leaders agreed to a lawsuit from one of McCarthy’s leading critics, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who wanted work requirements for Medicaid and other safety net programs to start earlier.
Despite winning concessions, Gaetz expressed frustration that changes to the bill were made in the dead of night and only hours before lawmakers voted on the package. Republicans often raged at then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats for skirting the regular order and making changes to big legislation in the middle of the night.
“I never get angry,” Gaetz said, “but it has a practical consequence when changes are made at two in the morning and we are asked to vote in the hours that follow.”
Gaetz was one of four Republicans who voted against the bill, along with Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado and Tim Burchett of Tennessee. All Democrats voted no.
McCarthy had little leeway: he could only afford those four Republican defections given his slim majority. And he was working until the final minutes of the vote.
“This shows that House Republicans can govern,” said Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., a McCarthy ally. “It shows that Kevin McCarthy is the leader of the House Republicans and has exercised that leadership.”
After initially threatening to vote no, swing district Rep. Nancy Mace, RS.C., spoke in favor of the bill Wednesday afternoon. McCarthy agreed that Mace will lead a draft on a balanced budget amendment for the Republicans, and win floor votes on his bills related to active shooter alerts and women’s access to reproductive health and child care services. said a source.
“I feel heard by the speaker,” Mace said. “I will support the debt ceiling vote today.”
McCarthy’s bill, dubbed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, would raise the federal borrowing limit by $1.5 trillion or until March 31, 2024, whichever comes first. Cut federal discretionary spending to FY 2022 levels and impose a 1% growth cap; it would recapture unspent Covid relief funds, nullify Biden’s student debt cancellation plan, rescind IRS application funds, and add new work requirements for able-bodied adult recipients of federal programs like Medicaid.
Speaking at a closed-door meeting of House Republicans Wednesday morning, lawmakers said McCarthy rallied his troops ahead of the vote. “Let’s get this over with!” He told them.
According to Rep. Joe Wilson, RS.C., the speaker also recited a quote attributed to the late, legendary speaker Sam Rayburn in an attempt to limit defections.
“Any moron can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one.”
But the Republican package is just the initial offer in a deal that hasn’t gotten off the ground yet. Senate Democrats have said the McCarthy bill is going nowhere, and the White House has said Biden would veto it.
Pressed by reporters on whether he would now meet with the debt speaker, Biden said he is “happy to meet with McCarthy” to discuss issues, but not on whether to raise the debt limit.
“That is non-negotiable,” Biden said.
White House communications director Ben LaBolt criticized the bill, accusing McCarthy of having “compromised with the most extreme MAGA elements of his party” in a way that would harm food assistance and “eliminate the health care services for veterans, cut off access to Meals on Wheels, eliminate health care coverage for millions of Americans, and send manufacturing jobs overseas.”
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., argued that passage of the House bill would have no impact in the Senate, where he said it is “clearly dead on arrival.” Coons said the legislation could become a basis for negotiations on a separate government funding bill later in the year, but insisted Democrats will not discuss whether to pay the bills Congress has already racked up.
“It is completely appropriate that Democrats and Republicans, the House and the Senate, debate and discuss our spending levels; that is a legitimate and appropriate annual discussion that we should, and will, have in the appropriations process,” Coons said Wednesday. “It is NOT appropriate to use the default loaded weapon to coerce a certain cut menu.”
