Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) took a victory lap on Monday, touting House Republicans’ legislative accomplishments 100 days after they assumed control of the lower chamber in January.
Republicans have passed a series of symbolic bills in the early days of the new Congress, including their top legislative priority, the Lower Energy Costs Act. But the party has also managed to send five measures to President Joe Biden’s desk, three of which have become law.
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McCarthy, flanked by his leadership team, hailed the legislative wins at a Monday evening press conference as evidence the party is following through on its “Commitment to America,” a governing blueprint Republicans ran on in the midterm elections.
“One thing that is abundantly clear is the People’s House is a productive House again,” McCarthy declared.
In remarks that were laced with barbs at Democrats, McCarthy said the GOP-led House is “showing up for work,” alluding to the end of the pandemic-era practice of proxy voting. He drew a contrast between Republicans’ signature energy bill and Democrats’ top legislative priority in the last Congress — a voting rights and campaign finance reform bill that McCarthy painted as a cynical attempt to “make it easier for them to get reelected.”
His harshest words were reserved for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), whom he taunted for moving at a slower legislative pace in his first 100 days.
“As the House has passed a bill to fire 87,000 IRS agents, Sen. Schumer’s Senate passed a nonbinding resolution recognizing the importance of maple syrup production to Maine,” McCarthy said.
But he also emphasized the bipartisan votes many GOP-led measures received, including the creation of the select committee on China and a bill banning the sale of petroleum from the strategic reserve to China.
“House Republicans are accomplishing a lot in a bipartisan, productive fashion,” McCarthy said.
Republicans got off to a rocky start to the 118th Congress, taking 15 rounds to elect McCarthy as speaker of the House amid opposition from hard-line members of the conference. Since then, they have mustered the votes to advance key priorities, including a so-called Parents Bill of Rights.
More striking has been Republicans’ ability to enact GOP legislation despite Democrats controlling the Senate and White House. They successfully overturned the District of Columbia’s revised criminal code, which would have lowered penalties for offenses ranging from carjackings to homicide, after Biden reversed his opposition to the measure.
And lawmakers voted to end the national emergency for COVID-19, viewed as a symbolic win for Republicans given the White House was slated to sunset the declaration a little more than a month later.
Yet despite the momentum Republicans have had in their first 100 days, the party has been unable to advance several of the 11 “ready-to-go” measures GOP leadership had expected to pass in the first two weeks of the new majority.
That includes a border security package that led to public infighting between two Texas Republicans, Reps. Chip Roy and Tony Gonzales, over language on asylum claims. In a sign the party is ready to move past the impasse, the House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the border legislation on Wednesday without the controversial asylum provisions.
But the biggest challenges lie ahead for House Republicans as Washington barrels toward a crisis over the debt ceiling.
McCarthy’s “100 days” press conference came the same day he traveled to Manhattan to deliver a major speech on the borrowing limit before the New York Stock Exchange. The speaker is demanding spending cuts in exchange for a ceiling hike despite Biden’s refusal to offer concessions.
House GOP leadership, in a bid to show it’s serious about the cuts, is cobbling together support for a set of demands it plans to pass through the House sometime in May. That list may include rolling back next year’s budget to fiscal 2022 levels — in effect, a $130 billion cut — and work requirements for entitlement programs.
With just four votes to spare in the lower chamber, McCarthy will have to navigate the calls of hard-line members of his conference with the reservations of centrist Republicans up for reelection in swing districts.
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McCarthy addressed the brinkmanship in concluding his press conference, vowing to move the GOP proposal through the lower chamber.
“The House will take a leadership position, and we will move to make the fiscal house of America more secure by passing a debt ceiling and sending it to Schumer,” he said. “We know it may disrupt his ability to pass more resolutions, but we look forward to him bringing the bill up and passing it to make sure America is more secure.”
