The move has left the chamber paralyzed, with some conservatives unhappy about the debt limit deal reached by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden. They believe the procedures used to pass the value in the House last week were not faithful to their agreement with McCarthy that gained their acquiescence to his speakership. McCarthy consented to allow conservatives more sway over decision-making and the mechanics of passing bills in the January deal.
Conservatives are also accusing the 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.
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Freedom Caucus members and their allies joined Democrats in voting against a rule that would have 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.
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"Today we took down the rule because we're frustrated with the way this place is operating," said Rep. Matt Gaetz. "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."
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Gaetz also expressed frustration at the punishment delivered to his 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," he said.
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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.
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"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.
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Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., floated the idea of a rule known as a motion to vacate to trigger a no-confidence vote for McCarthy over his debt limit compromise with President Biden. "I think this shows today, there are many, many ways in which we all need to be together for the Republican majority to function effectively," he said.
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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.
None of the 11 Republicans who tanked the rule vote yesterday 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."
"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.
A source familiar with floor conversations before the rule vote yesterday indicated to Fox News Digital that that frustration over Clyde's bill, in particular, was in particular with Majority Leader Steve Scalise, 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 account would come to the floor for a vote next week.
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