FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group, released a list of three demands on Friday for the next House speaker after Rep. Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) ouster this week.
However, the group also stated it would not endorse a candidate in the race to replace McCarthy, although it is "watching" to see how the process plays out. So far, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) have announced their bids for House speaker, with Jordan receiving former President Donald Trump's endorsement for the job.
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“What we want to see from any candidate for Speaker is a viable plan for three very specific things," said Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks. "First, the passage of the Fiscal Commission Act is absolutely essential. Major trust fund programs will be exhausted within the next ten years, and we need a strategy on how to protect current beneficiaries while ensuring viability in the future."
Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) introduced the legislation, which creates a 16-member bipartisan commission to propose recommendations on addressing the national debt, last week. “The only way to get our nation’s fiscal house in order is for Congress to face reality and address the unsustainable trajectory of our national debt,” said Huizenga. “For too long, Congress has kicked the can down the road and not made the decisions necessary to secure our nation’s fiscal future for the next generation of Americans. The Fiscal Commission Act of 2023 requires Congress to vote on serious proposals from this bipartisan commission that will significantly improve the financial health of our nation.”
The legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. Scott Peters (D-CA), Tom Cole (R-OK), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), Ed Case (D-HI), William Timmons (R-SC), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Adrian Smith (R-NE), Ami Bera (D-CA), David Schweikert (R-AZ), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Blake Moore (R-UT), Jared Golden (D-ME), and Cory Mills (R-FL).
The second demand from FreedomWorks insists on the House finishing the appropriations process. "This process should have been completed by the end of June. The fact that the House didn’t begin the process until the week before the August recess is a failure of the body," Brandon continued.
At the heart of the government shutdown crisis that was averted but led to McCarthy being stripped of the speakership is the battle over how to pass the 12 annual appropriations bills. House Republicans have rebelled against funding for Ukraine and the fiscal 2024 funding levels that McCarthy negotiated with the White House earlier this year, instead pushing to keep funding levels at fiscal 2022. But Senate Democrats and Republicans are united in providing aid to Ukraine, meaning that once the stopgap measure, passed to keep the government funded past Sept. 30, expires, Congress will once again haggle over how to finish passing all appropriations bills.
The next speaker will have to navigate a fractured House GOP over how to work with Democrats who control the Senate and the White House, which FreedomWorks is demanding candidates explain how they will do so.
"Finally, we want to know how candidates for Speaker plan to lead the conference, engage the growing number of independent voters who determine the balance of power in Congress, and bring an end to the era of negative partisanship in which we find ourselves," Brandon said. "We are not interested in being told what we want to hear. We want to see viable plans on these crucial issues going forward. Exercises in political messaging on the House floor are not a practical path forward. This is reflective of the hyperpartisanship that is holding our institutions hostage."
The group previously came out against the use of a motion to vacate against McCarthy in a rebuke of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), but Gaetz was undeterred and filed the motion on Monday evening to remove McCarthy from power. As the House GOP struggles on who to select as the next speaker, questions about the use of a motion to vacate are already being raised to gain votes.
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Another influential conservative group, Club for Growth, came out against changing the current motion to vacate rules this week. "Club for Growth will oppose any candidate for Speaker of the House who supports a return to Pelosi’s rules, especially her rule change against vacating the chair which stood for more than 200 years," said David M. McIntosh, the group's president. "The House was meant to act as a democratic body, not at the whims of one person’s self-interested agenda."
In 2019, under former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) leadership, a majority of either party had to agree to a motion to vacate, a change in previous precedents where only one member was needed. McCarthy agreed to lower the threshold to file a motion back to one member in a deal to win the speakership back in January.