GOP suggests holding McCarthy accountable post-debt ceiling vote.

The tension between House Republican leaders and the House Freedom Caucus has resurfaced with the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act on June 1. The law resulted from negotiations between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Joe Biden over terms for raising the nation’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. It passed by a wide margin in both the House and the Senate.

However, the bill angered the most conservative members of the House, and some in the Senate, who believe the speaker sacrificed too much to close the deal. Some members of the House Freedom Caucus mounted a spirited attempt to derail the legislation and nearly succeeded in killing it in committee. Now, a few of those members have hinted at a reckoning with McCarthy for his handling of the negotiations.

Showdown Looming

“More Democrats voted for this bill than Republicans,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) told CNN on June 4. “This bill is a Democrat bill. It is a bill that not only avoided a default but also locked in the progressive gains that the president made in the last two years.”

Nearly half of the 71 Republicans who voted against the bill are members of the House Freedom Caucus. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) also aired his grievance over the legislation.

“[House GOP leadership] were all working together … and figuring out how to work the best deal that we could,” Roy said in a June 1 radio interview. “[GOP leadership] broke from that, and we need to get back with the program, or we need to kind of have a little bit of a reckoning over it.”

Roy may have been hinting at a vote to vacate the speaker’s chair, which can be called by any member of the House. GOP hard-liners won that right in negotiations with McCarthy during his election as speaker in January.

The narrow Republican majority, 222-213, in the 118th Congress allowed a small group of conservatives to block McCarthy’s election for several days. McCarthy was eventually elected on the 15th ballot after making various concessions to the group.

Asked whether a move against McCarthy by his own party was likely, Buck left the possibility open.

“I don’t know if a motion to vacate is going to happen right away,” Buck said. “A lot of people voted for this because they have other interests that Kevin McCarthy has assured them. But that doesn’t mean that they are satisfied with his leadership.”

McCarthy Not Worried

House leaders also took to the airwaves after the passage of the bill, warning hard-liners that future attempts to hold up their party’s legislation will not be tolerated.

“We can’t continue to see challenges like that,” Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) said during a June 4 interview with CBS.

“Their goals are trying to change the trajectory of spending, transform Washington in a way that’s more responsive, long term, thinking about the next generation and the fiscal crisis that we’re approaching,” Graves said. “In this case, I think that leverage was trying to be exercised that really threatened the economy in a large way.”

Graves worked closely with McCarthy on the debt ceiling, serving as one of two lead negotiators with the White House.

McCarthy, when asked about the possibility of a motion to vacate the chair, seemed unperturbed.

“Everybody has the ability to do what they want. But if you think I’m gonna wake up in the morning and be worried about that, it doesn’t bother me. If someone thinks that, they have the right to do it. Call the vote,” McCarthy told reporters on June 2.

Buck, however, sees McCarthy as weakened by his dependence on Democrats to pass the bill.

In a procedural vote to allow the Fiscal Responsibility Act to be heard by the full House, the speaker relied on 52 Democrats to vote yes.

“That’s really unheard of,” Buck said.

• Will the House Freedom Caucus follow through with their threat?
• Will McCarthy be able to maintain his position as speaker?
• What does this mean for the future of the Republican Party?

These are just a few of the questions that remain unanswered as the tension between House Republican leaders and the House Freedom Caucus continues to escalate.