Gas stove protection bills suffer major setback as House Republicans express frustration with McCarthy
Fox News
A slate of GOP bills to protect natural gas-powered stoves from federal bans suffered a significant setback Tuesday after a group of House Republicans tanked a procedural measure moving the bills forward.
In a surprise 206-220 vote, a resolution establishing the rules for a floor vote on the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act and Save Our Stoves Act failed with 12 Republicans voting alongside Democrats. The setback was delivered by a group of GOP members — including Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Dan Bishop, R-N.C., and Chip Roy, R-Texas — who expressed frustration with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s, R-Calif., leadership.
“Today, we took down the rule because we’re frustrated at the way this place is operating,” Gaetz told reporters on the House floor during 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 have been violated as a consequence of the debt limit deal.”
“The answer for us is to reassert House conservatives as the appropriate coalition partner for our leadership instead of them making common cause with Democrats,” he continued. “We’re not going to live in a system where our members are subjected to this type of petty punishment. And we’re not going to live in a system where our constituents are left abandoned by anyone here in the Congress.”
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Gaetz specifically noted that Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., was told by Republican leadership that his legislation repealing a federal regulation targeting pistol braces wouldn’t be voted on this week as a punishment for his vote against the debt ceiling bill Congress approved last week.
Conservatives in the House loudly opposed the debt ceiling deal, which was agreed to by McCarthy and President Biden after weeks of negotiations, arguing that it didn’t reduce federal spending enough. Overall, 71 Republicans voted against the bill on May 31.
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During the vote Tuesday, Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., was seen engaged in a tense conversation with several Republicans who ultimately voted against the resolution.
“We fought for every member to have representation, every member to be empowered to represent their constituents and that was stripped from us last week with this debt ceiling deal,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., another Republican who voted against the resolution Tuesday. “It was a closed rule. We were not allowed to offer amendments. We didn’t even have the ability to give voice to this legislation.”
“This is what we fought for in January. We were serious when we did it,” Boebert added. “We said Congress is broken and we want fundamental changes to this place.”
The Republican infighting ultimately stalls a high-profile effort to curb federal regulations targeting gas stoves.
The Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, introduced by Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., would bar federal dollars from going toward regulatory efforts to ban gas stoves. The second bill, the Save Our Gas Stoves Act, from Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., would block the Department of Energy from implementing tougher conservation standards on stoves.
Both pieces of legislation have been opposed by the White House.