News

Jordan: Republicans will be able to pass House rules package

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said on Sunday that he expects that Republicans will be able to pass a House rules package that was the subject of negotiations during the election for Speaker of the chamber.

“I think we’ll get the 218 votes we need to pass the rules package,” Jordan said on “Fox News Sunday” with Shannon Bream. “What this rules package is designed to do is to stop what we saw happen literally 15 days ago when the Democrats passed a $1.7 trillion monstrosity of a bill.”

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had to make key concessions to a group of GOP holdouts through 15 rounds of voting for the gavel. Those concessions included changes to the proposed House rules package.

Among the changes, McCarthy has offered to lower the threshold for a motion to vacate, which allows members to oust a Speaker, to just one lawmaker. He also offered to allow a floor vote to establish term limits for House members.

The changes to the proposed House rules have posed another roadblock to getting the chamber back to normal work, as Republican members question whether to support its passage. 

Another commitment McCarthy made to his holdouts was to consider deep spending cuts, including the possibility of slashing defense spending.

“We got a $32 trillion debt, everything has to be on the table,” Jordan said on Sunday. “When you’ve got numbers like that … frankly, we better look at the money we send to Ukraine as well.”