Rep. Dan Bishop and the Freedom Caucus paralyzed the U.S. House. Can McCarthy fix it?
Rep. Dan Bishop helped members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus incapacitate Congress last week.
As of Sunday night, the group remained in a standoff with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, preventing him from doing any work other than to negotiate with the group.
It began last Tuesday when members of the U.S. House gathered for a rules vote for four separate bills. This type of vote determines whether members can bring a bill to the floor for debate. It’s typically done on party lines, with the majority having enough votes to get the bill to the floor. A rules vote hasn’t failed in 21 years.
Two of the bills involved regulating gas stoves. The others tackled modifying judicial review of agency actions and setting congressional approval for any proposed federal agency rules with an economic impact of at least $100 million.
Five minutes was put on the clock.
Republicans expected their party to vote in favor of the rules. Democrats expected their members to stand in opposition.
Things were going as expected until the clock hit zero.
The totals stood 203-203 with 28 people left to vote.
Then a handful of Republicans began voting no as McCarthy stood in front of the middle aisle talking to fellow members of Congress.
The first set of Republican opposition votes came in rapid succession: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Bishop made his way past McCarthy toward the dais. McCarthy unknowingly and temporarily blocked Bishop’s path back to the room out of view of cameras. He was also unaware that the Charlotte Republican had just cast a vote in opposition.
8, 9, 10, 11.
McCarthy’s face changed as others approached him.
He marched toward the back of the room, with Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and member of the Freedom Caucus, trailing behind him.
Nearly an hour went by before Majority Leader Steve Scalise changed his vote to be the 12th and final nay against the bill. Scalise’s maneuver was the only way Republicans would be able to bring the bills back for a vote at a later date.
The rules vote failed 220-206, giving Democrats the win.
“I don’t think there was any indication in advance that this would happen,” Scalise told reporters outside McCarthy’s office Wednesday.
Each political party has a member in its chamber who serves as a whip to ensure its members intend to vote as the party wants. If it appears that a member of the party may fall out of line, the whip reports back to party leadership in that chamber that they may not have the votes to pass a bill.
“You know that the whip doesn’t typically whip rules, the whip whips bills,” Scalise said. “I used to have that job. You whip the bills that are coming to the floor.”
Freedom Caucus frustration
Members of the House Freedom Caucus made it clear their vote was revenge for McCarthy agreeing with President Joe Biden to extend the debt ceiling through Jan. 1, 2025, to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its loans. A default would have been catastrophic, economists said.
Bishop made his opposition known before and after the deal passed through Congress. The House Freedom Caucus was angry the bill failed to meet its demands and that, in making the deal, McCarthy had backpedaled on some agreements he’d made with them to become House speaker.
“This is what it looks like when the uniparty cartel sells out the American people,” Bishop tweeted and pinned to the top of his Twitter account.
He also called on his fellow Republicans to oust McCarthy as House Speaker, saying McCarthy had reneged on promises he’d made to the Freedom Caucus.
But several days went by, tempers seemed to have softened and it looked like Congress would get back to business. Until the rules vote happened.
“We warned them not to cut that deal without coming down and sitting down and talking to us,” Roy told CBS News. “So, this is all about restoring a process that will fundamentally change things back to what was working.”
Caucus members would not commit to how long they’ll continue to block bills or if ousting McCarthy is still an option. On Wednesday, McCarthy ran out of the time he was allowed to continue punting the vote and ended up recessing Congress until Monday.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Bishop walked out of McCarthy’s office and refused to talk with reporters gathered outside the speaker’s door. He didn’t answer any reporters’ questions and laughed when asked specifically about talking to The Charlotte Observer.
Up the road, he told the reporter that her reporting had been “utterly” inaccurate but that he didn’t know if the Observer’s readership was worth his sitting back down with the reporter to sort it out.
Staff for Reps. Patrick McHenry and Richard Hudson did not return texts and phone calls asking for comment on the Freedom Caucus actions. Staff for Sen. Ted Budd, who was a member of the group until joining the Senate in January, said he’s focused on his chamber’s work and declined to comment.
Others in North Carolina political circles also declined to comment.
What does it all mean?
The standoff between McCarthy and the Freedom Caucus continued into the weekend.
“The question is who blinks or what kind of concessions does McCarthy want to make?” said Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College. “Even after this marathon speaker vote are there other aspects that he’s going to have to give up to this group to get back to a working governing coalition within the House?”
Bitzer added this reminds him of a parliamentary style of government and that often when one political group tells a party leader it no longer supports him, that’s what brings down governments in that form of government.
Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said the Freedom Caucus’ latest actions reveal division in the party.
“In terms of the public, it’s not a good look,” said Cooper. “No one wants to watch the sausage get made. It looks to the average voter, like inaction and disagreement and playing politics, and that’s not going to engender trust, respect and faith from the American people in Congress.”
Bitzer said it’s getting to a level unseen in modern American history.
“I think we rarely see in history the sense of deposing a speaker in such a manner,” Bitzer said, “but this is pretty much up there with bringing the business of the House to a grinding halt.”
The only focus of the House this week was on whipping the Freedom Caucus back in line.
Cooper believes last week’s drama could lead more people do disengage in politics, saying it’s in the Democrats’ interest to keep quiet and let people focus in on the Republican infighting. He doesn’t believe this will make people switch parties, but he does believe it will further erode people’s faith in Congress.
“Congress is already less popular than cockroaches and the band Nickelback, but it appears this tells me that they can fall even farther in the public’s eyes,” Cooper said.
This story was originally published June 12, 2023 at 11:19 AM.
