More than a dozen Republican House members flipped their votes to Kevin McCarthy for speaker in the 12th round.
Here’s why they switched:
Asked by CNN why he changed his vote, Rep.-elect Josh Brecheen said that it was due to “a potential transformative deal that can outlive any speaker up here on rules.”
Rep. Scott Perry told CNN that there was agreement on including language dealing with a debt ceiling increase in the final deal — a major issue in the new Congress, which will face a decision on raising the borrowing limit later this year to avoid a US debt default.
“We don’t want clean debt ceilings to just go through and just keep paying the bill without some counteractive effort to control spending.”
The deal also includes language to curb domestic spending at fiscal 2022 levels — prompting major concern from defense hawks. Perry also said he signed off on the deal after seeing it on paper, and he said he would help lobby the holdouts now.
“It is a framework of an agreement in good faith that allows us to keep moving forward,” Perry later told reporters.
He also tweeted about his decision:
Rep. Byron Donalds, as he exited McCarthy’s office to the House floor, refused to explain why he swapped his vote for McCarthy. But he later said he is confident McCarthy will become speaker.
Donalds said every member of the Republican conference has seen elements of the framework but declined to divulge specifics to reporters. He said he is “very, very confident” that the members who voted against the California representative won’t be retaliated against if he does become speaker.
“We’ve had that discussion with the leadership here,” about potential retaliation, Donalds said.
Rep. Victoria Spartz, who had voted “present” on previous speaker ballots, explained her change on Fox News by saying, “I’m happy to see a positive change of tone and having the conversations.
“They’re not there yet but it was a very good chance of tone and that will make our conference much stronger and it will make us as Republicans much stronger, to be able to reconcile differences now so we can govern as a unit,” she added.
Spartz said negotiations such as happened this week will be necessary in a “tight majority” and that “there were some legitimate concerns that needed to be addressed” that were raised by the dissident House Republicans.
Rep. Chip Roy cautioned the talks are ongoing and there is more work to be done.
“We’re not done yet, right. We don’t have 218 on the floor yet and we’re going to keep having conversations,” Roy said.
Rep. Dan Bishop said the central details of a framework agreement are known and it “We’ve worked very hard to make sure it is achievable, that it has teeth and it is understood well.”
