McCarthy bid heads into the fourth day

Delay in choosing a speaker impacts new D.C. laws

The delay in choosing a House speaker is affecting life just outside the Capitol building: New laws for the District of Columbia cannot take effect.

“Local DC legislation is transmitted to Congress for a designated review period before it can be enacted, but without a Speaker, the review period cannot even begin,” tweeted Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., on Thursday.

A member of the D.C. Council also tweeted about the holdup.

“Until House Republicans get their act together, new DC laws cannot take effect. And hard-working DC residents who work for House Committees risk losing their pay,” said Janeese Lewis George. “Republicans always want to impose their will on DC, but they can’t even run their own caucus.”

D.C. law requires legislation passed by the D.C. Council to be submitted to Congress for a review period, but because there’s no speaker yet, there is no functioning Congress, as lawmakers can’t be sworn in until after someone is chosen for the position. As a result, none of the new laws can take effect.

McCarthy, Republicans on conference call say there’s still no agreement

On Friday’s conference call with Republicans, McCarthy expressed optimism but made clear he didn’t have the votes yet, according to more than six people on the call. 

“I’m not telling you we have an agreement,” McCarthy said at one point, according to two people. “We’re in a good position and having meetings.”

A GOP member on the conference call Friday morning said that Republicans were “laying out parameters of a deal but no true deal yet.”

Another GOP lawmaker told NBC News that there was no agreement yet.

A McCarthy opponent, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, confirmed in a tweet that they had not reached an agreement, noting that “any agreement will take us ALL.  We are making progress… but don’t let the sharks confuse the ongoing engagement.  #Onward #StandUpForAmerica.”

Reporters appear to be live tweeting the GOP conference call

Members of the Capitol press corps were live-tweeting what was being said on the House GOP Conference call Friday morning.

One reporter, Politico’s Olivia Beavers, wrote on Twitter that McCarthy asked reporters to get off the call, adding that Republicans don’t have a deal for the speaker election.

Other reporters said McCarthy told his rank-and-file members to stop leaking information to reporters about the conference call discussion.

This came after reporters shared contradictory information about whether McCarthy had struck an agreement with his opponents. The California Republican then reiterated that he does not have a deal.

‘I’m not even a congressman’: House lawmakers and staffers can’t function while speaker fight drags on

WASHINGTON — There is no speaker of the House. There are no active House lawmakers. There are no House committees.

At the moment, there is no functioning U.S. House of Representatives.

The four-day-long Republican standoff over Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s speaker bid has meant that none of the 434 people elected to the House in November have been sworn in, leaving children and spouses who traveled to Washington to celebrate with the members-elect floating around the marbled building waiting for something, anything, to happen.

Freshman members-elect haven’t been able to set up their House email. Committees, now controlled by Republicans, haven’t been able to hire new staffers. And lawmakers have lost their security clearances and are forbidden to receive sensitive information or enter secure briefing rooms known as SCIFs — because they aren’t technically members.

Read the full story here.

House GOP to regroup for 10:15 a.m. conference call 

House Republicans will huddle again this morning as they head into a fourth day of voting. Instead of another in-person meeting, they will hold a 10:15 a.m ET conference call with rank and file to go over the deal. 

McCarthy, foes inch closer to a deal as speaker standoff enters Day 4

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and his conservative detractors on Wednesday night inched closer to a deal designed to flip some no votes to the yes column. But it appears unlikely such an agreement would give McCarthy the 218 votes he needs to win the speaker’s gavel.

A handful of hard-line conservatives, led by Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, said they remained bent on derailing McCarthy’s bid for speaker. And because of the GOP’s new razor-thin majority, McCarthy can only afford four GOP defections on any speaker vote.

“If Kevin McCarthy doesn’t bow out, then he will have to live the entirety of his speakership in a straightjacket constructed by these rules that we’re working on now,” Gaetz said in a Fox News appearance Thursday night, nodding to efforts to water down McCarthy’s power. “We have zero trust in Kevin McCarthy,” he said, adding, “This is someone whose compass is like a wet finger in the wind.”

Still, there were signs that McCarthy and leaders of the far-right Freedom Caucus were on the cusp of a breakthrough that could shake loose more votes for McCarthy — and shift momentum in his favor.

Read the full story here.

Gaetz says he’s been talking to Democrats to keep them on the floor

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said Thursday night on Fox News that his goal in discussions with Democrats has been to make sure they don’t leave the chamber and alter the vote count.

“My conversations with Democrats have largely been about making sure that they don’t leave the floor for dinner or fundraisers or whatnot,” Gaetz, a leader of the group of conservatives opposing Kevin McCarthy for speaker, told host Laura Ingraham.

“We need them to stay there so that the denominator in the equation on the election of a speaker allows us to have leverage to push for many of the things we’ve been discussing,” including things like the budget, term limits and committee assignments, he said.

Questioned about members of the conservative opposition sending fundraising emails based on their votes against McCarthy, Gaetz said, “I’ve sent out similar emails, and the reason is because pro-McCarthy groups have actually been running robocalls in our districts trying to pressure us and leverage us.” He added, “It is not the end of the world that we take a few extra days or maybe even a couple of weeks to sort this out.”

If members are not present for votes, it would lower the threshold McCarthy, of California, needs to win a majority and become House speaker. Democratic leadership, however, has been whipping members to make sure they vote as a unified bloc against McCarthy as they continue to nominate their leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, for the position.

Arriving to Capitol Friday, McCarthy predicts ‘progress’ in his favor

McCarthy arrived to the Capitol on Friday morning telling reporters that he thinks there will be “progress” that will benefit his bid for speaker.

“We’re going to make progress, we’re gonna shock you!” McCarthy said.

The California Republican, however, acknowledged that Friday may not be the day for his election because there are lawmakers absent, including for family obligations.

Gaetz says Trump is ‘wrong’ for supporting McCarthy in speaker’s race

GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a longtime Trump loyalist, said Thursday night that he was “not going to back” the former president in his support for McCarthy.

“President Trump is wrong to the extent that he supports Kevin McCarthy,” Gaetz, who nominated and voted for Trump on the House floor Thursday, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. “I am not going to back him on this play.”

When asked about the concessions in a potential deal and what else he might demand, Gaetz responded, “I wouldn’t be betting on my vote for Kevin McCarthy under almost any circumstance.”

Gaetz went on to say that he would support Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio if McCarthy were to bow out of the race, adding that he believed Jordan “would win” in that scenario. McCarthy, however, has given no indication that he’s planning to throw in the towel, and Jordan has backed McCarthy in his bid for speaker.