House Republicans are approaching the new year wary about their slimming majority in the wake of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy\u2019s announced exit.<\/p>\n
McCarthy, R-Calif., said he would leave Congress by the end of this month after he was ousted from the speakership two months ago. It comes on the heels of the House expelling scandal-plagued Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y.\u00a0<\/p>\n
House Republicans will only be able to lose three votes on any legislation to pass it without Democratic votes for the first several weeks of the new year, until special elections bring new members and change the margins yet again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I mean, we\u2019re operating on razor-thin margins here,\u2019 Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital. \u2018Between God, gravity, indictments, and retirements, we\u2019re one day away from losing the majority depending on what happens.\u2019<\/p>\n
GOP Conference Vice Chair Blake Moore, R-Utah, conceded that the numbers were tight but argued it was not much different than their current situation.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s tough to operate in a four-seat [majority], it\u2019s tough to operate in a two-seat [majority]. We\u2019ve got to be judicious in what we get done, and do something that we can all get behind,\u2019 Moore said.<\/p>\n
However, others echoed Garcia\u2019s concerns that the slim majority would mean that any single member\u2019s absence is consequential when the House is in session.<\/p>\n
Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern, R-Okla., said he did not believe it would make a difference \u2018from a policy standpoint,\u2019 but he added, \u2018I just think from an attendance standpoint, it\u2019d be hard.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018What are we going to be governing by, one vote? It\u2019s always a concern when people get sick, they get injured. It makes the whip\u2019s job measurably more difficult with a narrower majority,\u2019 said Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C.<\/p>\n
A special election will take place to replace Santos in mid-February. California Gov. Gavin Newsom must set a date for an election to replace McCarthy.<\/p>\n
That means House Republicans are likely to stay on thin margins through their Jan. 19 deadline for funding part of the government.<\/p>\n
Conservatives like Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, urged GOP leaders to resist giving Democrats concessions to pass legislation until the numbers in the House change.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s gonna be tight\u2026We\u2019ve dealt with it before, though, and I think that Speaker Johnson is doing an excellent job of keeping everybody together. And, frankly, I think people will realize how important it is to stay together,\u2019 Self explained.<\/p>\n
\u2018What I do not want to see is bills put on the floor that pass with more Democrat than Republican votes. No, that is not a way to govern.\u2019<\/p>\n\n
House Republicans are approaching the new year wary about their slimming majority in the wake of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy\u2019s announced exit. McCarthy, R-Calif., said he would leave Congress by the end of this month after he was ousted from the speakership two months ago. It comes on the heels of the House expelling <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}