House Rules Committee Republican seeks to kill debt limit measure.
Rep. Chip Roy accused House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday of making a deal that might hinder negotiations to increase the US debt limit this week.
McCarthy's supporters promptly challenged the Texas Republican, heightening tension ahead of Tuesday's House Rules Committee meeting and putting pressure on conservative holdout Rep.
Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has yet to take a stance on the proposal.
Roy said that McCarthy made a handshake agreement in January that all nine Republicans on the important panel must agree to carry any legislation ahead or the whole House cannot vote on it.
Since Roy and another conservative committee member are against the debt limit measure, that would kill it.
“A reminder that during Speaker negotiations to build the coalition, it was explicit both that nothing would pass Rules Committee without AT LEAST 7 GOP votes - AND that the Committee would not allow reporting out rules without unanimous Republican votes,” Roy tweeted.
Senior GOP sources confirmed that seven Republican committee members agreed to go ahead to take a measure to the floor, but they denied that all nine agreed to move forward.
“I never heard that. Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota claimed the conference was unaware of the exchanges. “I doubt them.”
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