Group of moderate Dem lawmakers offer deal to expand McHenry’s powers amid speaker fight
Fox News
A group of moderate Democrat lawmakers offered a deal to House Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., to expand his powers in exchange for more bills on the floor.
Four House Democrats from the embattled bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus sent a letter to McHenry saying the House selected a speaker pro-tempore “with very limited authority” after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster last week.
“In light of our nation’s pressing issues, a looming government shutdown, and the attacks on our key ally, Israel, we strongly support an immediate vote to expand the Speaker Pro Tempore’s authorities to allow for the consideration of a legislative agenda limited to the most pressing issues,” the letter, led by New Jersey Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer, read.
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“Unless and until a Speaker of the House is elected, Congress should implement temporary, expanded authorities — at fifteen calendar day increments — directing the Speaker Pro Tempore to bring before the House proposed legislation only covering the following specific areas,” the lawmakers continued.
The areas included foreign aid funding for Ukraine and Israel, extending the current continuing resolution through January 2024 to avoid a government shutdown and committee and floor consideration for appropriations bills.
In exchange for McHenry receiving expanded powers, the Democrats would receive half of the suspension bills on the calendar.
“The government cannot continue to be hamstrung — leaving American families, our economy, and national security at risk,” the Democrats wrote.
“We hope you’d agree that we must restart the business of the House of Representatives without delay,” they added.
Joining Gottheimer on the letter are three of his Democratic colleagues: Reps. Ed Case of Hawaii, Susie Lee of Nevada and Jared Golden of Maine.
Politico first reported the letter on Friday amid the House GOP’s fight to find a new speaker.
The Problems Solvers Caucus is currently facing a problem of its own.
Several House Republicans in the bipartisan group said they could see a mass exodus over their Democratic counterparts’ role in McCarthy’s ouster.
“I’m really thinking strongly about leaving the Problem Solvers Caucus,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital. “I think there’s a lot of Republicans who are disenchanted with the Democratic members of the Problem Solvers Caucus.”
McCarthy, R-Calif., became the first speaker of the House in U.S. history to be booted from the job after eight hardliners within his party joined with every Democrat to vote him out of it.
“I’m very frustrated that none of the members who claim to be centrist… would work with us to defeat this motion to vacate,” Malliotakis said. “If their whole purpose is to bring good governance and make sure that we can continue our work to get through this appropriations process in the next 40 days, they should have done the right thing here, which would have been to… keep Congress working.”
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.