Rep. Tony Gonzales (Texas) was the lone Republican to vote against the GOP majority’s new House rules package on Monday after raising concerns about possible defense budget cuts over the weekend.
Gonzales revealed on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that he planned to oppose the rules package, saying the potential defense cuts were “a horrible idea,” pointing specifically to an “aggressive Russia in Ukraine” and the “growing threat of China in the Pacific.”
The package is the set of rules that will govern the chamber over the next legislative session. The rules were the subject of much debate over the last week, as now-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) offered key concessions over the package to lock down the support of Republicans who opposed his bid for the gavel.
Concessions in the rules package included a required 72-hour window from the release of a bill before it could face a vote and allowing any single member to bring up a “motion to vacate” the Speaker.
It was the first legislation to be considered in the new Congress, and its passage now allows the House to debate other pieces of legislation and move forward with usual business.
Other Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.), floated the idea of voting against the rules package but ultimately decided to support it.
Aside from Gonzales’s “no” vote, the package passed the House with a party-line vote.