The U.S. House of Representatives elected California Republican Kevin McCarthy as Speaker early Saturday after 15 rounds of voting, and one hold-out Georgia congressman said he is pleased with the final outcome.
District 9 Rep. Andrew Clyde spoke on WDUN’s The Martha Zoller Show Monday morning to discuss his thoughts on the new Speaker, and what will be on the House agenda this session.
The Associated Press reported that Clyde and 19 other Republicans initially thought McCarthy was not conservative enough. However, Clyde and the Republicans negotiated with McCarthy to ensure he will follow through on his promise to fight for House representatives.
“I think what this weekend has shown, especially Friday, has shown that Kevin McCarthy… I believe his last words were ‘I never give up,’” McCarthy said on the Martha Zoller show. “I believe that the White House and the Senate – the Democrat leadership – is now terrified of a McCarthy that will not give up. We have seen that he can fight and he's willing to fight if he puts his mind to it. He can fight and he can fight hard and he can win. And that's what I think the Senate in the White House is seeing in a Speaker.”
Clyde said a Speaker who has representatives’ support will have a greater impact than a Speaker who is solely looking for power.
“I think that that is going to terrify the White House and the Senate leadership,” Clyde said. “I think you're gonna see a brand new House – a way a House works. And I'm really excited about that.”
Clyde further explained some of the victories that Republicans achieved during the four days of ballots in a press release.
He and the other 19 dissenting GOP members established a “Jeffersonian Motion” to vacate the Speaker’s chair if the Speaker reverses his word or policy agenda. A single member will be able to make this motion.
“This is the primary measure with very broad authority that holds the Speaker accountable,” Clyde stated in the press release.
The House will vote on rules Monday night, and McCarthy and representatives were sworn in Monday morning.
“One of the agreements that we had was that there must be 72 hours between the time a piece of legislation is finalized and in print and the time it comes to the House floor,” Clyde said. “So that was the very first instance of what the agreement was actually coming into play. So we had to have 72 hours to go over those rules, and as a result of the rules vote is going to be tonight [Monday].”
One new rule that lawmakers will address and vote on is single-subject bills and earmarks, which Clyde said he has not seen in the House during his lifetime.
“You have germaneness of amendments to those bills,” Clyde said. “And what that means is we will never see the type of omnibus bill that we all voted on in December and got to look after 24 hours that was 4,400 pages long. That means the bill has to be one solitary subject, and the amendments to those bills have to comply with that subject.”
Creating the 2023 budget will be one of House representatives’ first tasks, and Clyde is pleased that the House has more budget-setting power with its slight Republican majority.
“The Constitution says that revenue bills have to begin in the House,” Clyde said. “So therefore, any amendments that the Senate makes that do not comply with the rules of the House, they are immediately rejected.”
Clyde also said that for one of the first times he can remember, appropriations must match the budget.
In the press release, Clyde touted the new budget that will “[stop] an increase in the debt ceiling without a plan to decrease and cap the growth of spending and [hold] the Senate accountable to House Rules and the Constitution.”
Clyde and the 19 other GOP members are also looking forward to the creation of a “Church-style committee” that is intended to hold government agencies accountable.
“Its sole purpose is to go after the three-letter agencies in the federal government that have been weaponized against the American people,” Clyde said. “And we're talking the FBI, the Department of Justice, the [The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] and then some of those intelligence agencies as well, like the Central Intelligence Agency [and] the National Security Agency that truly have not been doing their job but have been politicized. This committee is now going to have the strength and the power to do that under law. And I am so excited about that. Our district in our country hasn't seen anything yet as to what's going to happen to keep the government accountable, because that was what this whole fight was about.”
You can listen to Martha Zoller’s full interview with Clyde by clicking the link above.
