Nearly every week features a familiar plotline for the House Republican conference: Right-flank pressure spurs last-minute scrambles that appear to put Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) and GOP leaders in peril – before they squeak out a compromise or victory.
In the latest episode, the House Freedom Caucus’s push to add culture war amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) tanked Democratic support for the normally bipartisan bill — but won over enough hardline conservatives that Republicans passed it without needing Democratic help.
Previous installments included a rebellion that shut down floor action for a week over backlash to the debt ceiling deal McCarthy struck with President Biden, surprise privileged motions to impeach Biden and censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and last-minute changes to a GOP border and immigration bill to quell conservative concerns.
For now, House GOP leaders are embracing the pattern.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you that Republicans continue to keep our promises,” McCarthy said in a press conference on Friday after the NDAA passed the House.
But with the coming weeks and months sure to bring internal battles over spending, as well as must-pass measures like the NDAA requiring compromise with the Senate, the question is how long the pattern will hold.
Those in the right flank are happy with the outcome — this time.
“I’m really pleased with not only the product,” Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) said of the NDAA, but also “the process” of considering and approving so many amendments.
House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.) touted the hardline conservative group securing conservative “gains” in the NDAA through the “continuous, persistent and principled, relentless efforts of America’s House Freedom Caucus.”
“The small majority in the House has been able to rack up win after win after win. And though it’s difficult, and though sometimes it looks like we’re not going to be able to get the job done, I would say that time and time again – over the course of the last six, seven months – we have come across the finish line,” Perry said in a press conference on Friday.
McCarthy let out a sharp giggle in response to being told that the Freedom Caucus took credit for forcing amendment votes in the NDAA. Asked if the group was running the House right now, McCarthy said: “I don’t think so, but apparently you do.”
After enraging the right flank with the debt limit compromise bill that passed with mostly Democratic votes, McCarthy this time opted to pass the NDAA by appeasing conservatives and alienating Democrats with amendments that reversed the Pentagon’s policy to reimburse abortion-related travel expenses and gutted diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
After a batch of the more controversial amendments were made in order for votes in the wee hours of Thursday morning, conservatives continued to keep the pressure on leadership to see them adopted.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) had warned on Thursday that “there better be some damn good whipping” on the amendments — and said leadership had committed to whipping in favor of some of them.
Approval of many of those amendments won over most of the hardliners for the final bill, and McCarthy helped sway at least one holdout that remained.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) had vowed to vote against the NDAA over it containing authorization of funds to Ukraine, but changed her mind Friday after McCarthy asked her to be a key negotiator on the eventual conference committee that will resolve differences with the Senate’s version of the defense bill.
It keeps with an all-carrot, no-stick strategy leaders are taking in managing the House GOP.
“You don’t have a stick in this job,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said in an interview a few days before the NDAA passed. “We don’t have the ability to walk into someone’s office and tell them, ‘If you don’t do this, you can kiss this goodbye.’”
Just a month ago, an alleged attempt to use a stick resulted in even greater headaches for GOP leaders. After Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) claimed that a member of leadership threatened to keep one of his pieces of legislation from getting a vote, a small group of conservatives voted against a procedural rule and brought legislative floor activity to a standstill for a week.
Instead, Emmer — a former hockey coach — is skating through the chaos.
“Whether it was the privilege motion experience, or the floor experience with the shutdown – I mean, I understand people who have been here for a long time [say], ‘That’s a no-no, we don’t do that,’” Emmer said. “Well, just because it’s never been done before, don’t for a second think it won’t be done now. People are rewriting rules, they’re making their own history. And our job is to make sure we’re hearing them, and we understand what it is that is driving them.”
Sometimes the chaos takes him by surprise. He recalled one week — he believes it was the week the House GOP passed its border bill — staff told him on Monday that it should be a pretty easy one. Later, he had nearly 50 Republican members in his office as they worked out a solution to a small bit of language that caused issues with members.
“Holy cow, that is absolutely insane. And we managed to get it done,” Emmer said.
His approach is working for now. Freedom Caucus member Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) said he has been “consistently impressed” by Emmer’s whip operation.
McCarthy’s move to lean in to conservative policy with the NDAA this week might help him repair trust with the right flank as he negotiates spending levels and appropriations bills with them.
“It is a really hugely significant step to repairing the disunity that occurred after the debt ceiling bill,” Bishop said of the NDAA and its process.
Some of the pattern is due to the political reality of a five-seat majority.
Roy said that aside from the weekly drama “being utterly exhausting and tiring,” it is “indicative” of that challenge.
“It’s a divided Congress with a divided government and executive branch with a thin majority in the House. This is what you’re going to do,” Roy said. “You got to work hard, give and take, talk to your colleagues. Find a way to move things through.”
Some see that conflict as healthy for the House GOP.
“This is a dynamic House majority. It is the most dynamic House majority that Republicans have seen in 25 years,” said Bishop.
The pressures of getting the votes for the defense bill did not stop McCarthy from setting up a photo line in Statuary Hall and spending around 45 minutes taking photos with tourists on Thursday.
He told one young woman about a book he just read by psychologist Angela Duckworth called “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.”
“You want to know the best way to know if someone’s going to be successful? Perseverance. You never give up,” McCarthy told her.
Mychael Schnell contributed.