Conservatives blockade House floor in latest mutiny against GOP leadership

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Freedom Caucus will not talk until Senate passes debt ceiling bill

Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on the Freedom Caucus endorsing the House’s debt ceiling bill two weeks ahead of the default deadline.

Conservatives appear to be exacting revenge on House GOP leaders by paralyzing the chamber’s legislative business in an unprecedented blockade after tanking a normally sleepy procedural vote on Tuesday.

"House Leadership couldn’t Hold the Line," Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., tweeted Wednesday morning. "Now we Hold the Floor." 

Some conservatives are unhappy about the debt limit deal House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reached with President Biden and believe the procedures used to pass it in the House last week were not faithful to the agreement they have with McCarthy that gained their acquiescence to his speakership. McCarthy in the January deal consented to allowing conservatives more sway over decision-making and the mechanics of passing bills.

They're also accusing leadership of exacting revenge on members who tried to tank a procedural vote before the House's final debt limit bill by stymieing a resolution from Rep, Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., aimed at rolling back a Biden administration firearms rule.

Freedom Caucus members and their allies joined Democrats on Tuesday in voting against a rule that would’ve allowed four bills to reach the House floor, including two separate House GOP bills taking on the Biden administration’s attempt to limit gas stove availability. It’s the first time in two decades that a rules vote has failed.

"Today we took down the rule because we’re frustrated with the way this place is operating," Gaetz told reporters on the Capitol steps after the vote. "We took a stand in January to end the era of the imperial speakership. We’re concerned that the fundamental commitments that allowed Kevin McCarthy to assume the speakership had been violated as a consequence of the debt limit deal."

GOP TOUTS MCCARTHY-BIDEN DEAL AS ‘CONSERVATIVE’ VICTORY AS SOME REPUBLICANS DEFECT

Rep. Chip Roy speaks during the House Freedom Caucus news conference to oppose the debt limit deal outside the Capitol on May 30, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

He also added as a frustration, "I am very aggrieved at the punishment that was delivered to my colleague Andrew Clyde on his bill regarding pistol braces… for him standing with us and the votes we took against the rule that allowed the debt limit to be increased."

With just a thin GOP majority in the House, McCarthy can only afford to lose a handful of votes on any piece of legislation — giving the hard-right faction of the party outsized influence. 

Speaking on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast on Wednesday, Gaetz pledged to bring the House floor "to a grinding halt" and speculated it would remain shut for the day. 

"I don't know if the floor will be reopened. I would bet it wouldn't be. But now the true test of chicken is whether Kevin McCarthy will scuttle our oversight agenda, vis a vis, [FBI Director] Christopher Wray, as an effort to punish us," he said.

DEMOCRATS HELP MCCARTHY ADVANCE DEBT CEILING DEAL IN NAILBITER HOUSE VOTE

"I think this shows today, there are many, many ways in which we all need to be together for the Republican majority to be able to function effectively," said Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., who floated the idea of a rule known as motion to vacate to trigger a no-confidence vote for McCarthy over his debt limit compromise with President Biden.

Freedom Caucus members who met with McCarthy in his office on Tuesday evening suggested little had changed when they emerged. It’s not clear if there will be any votes on Wednesday. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz told reporters that conservatives blocked Tuesday's vote because of their dissatisfaction with House leadership. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

None of the 11 Republicans who tanked the rule vote Tuesday have named specific concessions they want from McCarthy or other leaders. But they have broadly accused him of breaking from his agreement with them in January to secure the speaker's gavel, the full details of which have never been made public.

"What we plan to do is to be ready at all points in time, acting in good faith to reforge the unity that was destroyed last week. And so what happens depends on how leadership is inclined to reciprocate and proceed," Bishop said. 

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told reporters, "I’m not getting into any specifics. It's the same thing as December when I said to you guys, I’m going to give a red line. I'm not gonna say we got to have A, B or C. I'm not gonna say this is about Andrew Clyde. I'm not gonna say it's about one particular thing. But the direction that we took last week was a failure."

DEBT DEAL WITH BIDEN A 'BETRAYAL' THAT COULD COST MCCARTHY SPEAKERSHIP, HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS MEMBER SAYS

Many blamed leaders for not yet bringing Rep. Andrew Clyde's pistol brace bill to the House floor. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

"We got rolled. I was a bad deal, and it was a bad deal that was cut when it shouldn't have been cut. We warned them not to cut that deal without coming down and sitting down and talk to us. So this is all about restoring a process that will fundamentally change things back to what was working," Roy said.

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A source familiar with floor conversations before the rule vote Tuesday indicated to Fox News Digital that frustration over Clyde's bill in particular was with Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who said there had been issues with the pistol brace bill’s support earlier on Tuesday but pledged they were being worked out. Clyde said his bill would come to the floor for a vote next week.