A new week and a new House speaker, Kevin McCarthy. As I wrote on Friday, I wasn’t too bothered by it and surmised that we would eventually wind up with McCarthy as speaker. I also thought it was a good thing that there was a scrappy group of conservatives who were gumming up the works, primarily because they were disrupting any sense of business as usual (or BAU as they call it in the business world).
Turns out there were even more reasons to be glad it happened. Did you see the list of concessions that McCarthy and his allies made to the Freedom Caucus, led by Matt Gaetz, in order to secure the gavel?
McCarthy’s deal with Freedom Caucus members will give them several seats on the crucial House Rules Committee and House Appropriations Committee — a “very important” concession, Gaetz said. He declined to say who he was pushing for those roles.
The low-profile Rules Committee determines how new bills can be introduced into the House. Its members — often some of the body’s most senior lawmakers — can effectively stall bills of their choosing, making them some of the most powerful in the chamber.
Meanwhile, the Appropriations Committee is tasked with passing the all-important appropriations bills that fund the government. Seats on that committee have long been a target of House fiscal hawks.
This is good. Many of the Freedom Caucus members don’t have the seniority that other House members have, but nowhere in the constitution is “seniority” a requirement to chair a committee — it’s just a tradition that has developed over the centuries and keeps otherwise capable members of Congress out of key positions.
A list of the concessions from CNN:
- Any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair
- A McCarthy-aligned super-PAC (the Congressional Leadership Fund) agreed to not spend in open Republican primaries in safe seats
- The House will hold votes on key conservative bills, including a balanced budget amendment, congressional term limits, and border security
- Efforts to raise the nation’s debt ceiling must be paired with spending cuts
- Move 12 appropriations bills individually, instead of passing separate bills to fund government operations
- More Freedom Caucus representation on committees, including the influential House Rules Committee
- Cap discretionary spending at fiscal year 2022 levels, which would amount to lower levels for defense and domestic programs
- 72 hours to review bills before they come to floor
- Give members the ability to offer more amendments on the House floor
- Create an investigative committee to probe the “weaponization” of the federal government
- Restore the Holman rule, which can be used to reduce the salary of government officials
The first one, “Any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair” is a big win for the members of the House. It used to take a group of five to do that. Now it only takes one. Good. Nobody should take it for granted that he keeps the gavel.
Apart from that, here’s what absolutely floors me about this list: these are concessions. Think about that when it comes to this one: “72 hours to review bills before they come to the floor.”
Isn’t that just common sense? Actually, a full week would be common sense, but that’s not how massive bills were being introduced for a vote. They were being voted on at the last minute with no advance time to consider or debate. A concession means that McCarthy and his allies wanted to keep it that way.
Or how about this one: “cap discretionary spending at 2022 levels.” Again, a concession implies that they wanted the option of increasing spending — on top of the monstrosities they passed last year.
And what’s with creating an investigative committee to probe the “weaponization” of the federal government as a concession? I would’ve thought that would go without saying. We want our representatives to get in there and knock down doors and kick over tables.
Bring Nancy Pelosi in front of a committee to answer questions about January 6 and two sham impeachments. Put Adam Schiffty-Shiff in front of a committee and make him answer for years of outright lying about Trump and Republicans. Make Tony “The Science” Fauci answer for his funding of the Wuhan Institute. Get Christopher Wray in front of Jim Jordan to answer for his FBI and Merrick Garland to answer for his DOJ and the fake domestic terrorism made up of concerned parents and patriotic Americans.
Unfortunately, the fact that these are “concessions” means that we’ve got a uniparty member as Speaker of the House and many uniparty members who outnumber the Freedom Caucus — my guess is that they will find ways to appease the Democrats in spite of their concessions. That’s how it always goes.
But we’ll see.