Far-right members of Congress are blocking legislation in the House of Representatives in retaliation after the passage of a bipartisan agreement to lift the debt ceiling.
The rebellion began earlier this week, when members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus voted against a rule to advance a bill that would prevent government action on gas stoves. Every Democrat voted against the bill, along with 12 Republicans, making it the first time a rule to pass a piece of legislation had failed to pass on the House floor since 2002.
Many of the Republicans who opposed the rule also opposed the agreement to lift the debt limit, such as Reps Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Chip Roy (R-TX) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
Mr Gaetz said the blockade came in retaliation for the bipartisan debt ceiling agreement that House Republican leadership brokered with the White House that passed last week.
“When Speaker McCarthy and House GOP Leadership couldn’t hold the line on spending, they surrendered the ability to exclusively hold the floor,” Mr Gaetz tweeted. “We are going to #HoldTheFloor and refuse to allow their failure theater to continue to play out.”
“All we are asking is that Speaker McCarthy abide by the spending commitments he previously made,” Rep Ken Buck (R-CO) tweeted. “That’s not an unreasonable ask.”
As a result, the House dismissed itself for the rest of the week and will not convene until Monday 12 June for votes.
The logjam led to House Republican leadership blaming each other.
“We’ve been through this before; you know we’re in a small majority,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said, The New York Times reported, also taking a swipe at House Majority Leader Steve Scalise for the failure to control procedure.
“The majority leader runs the floor,” he told reporters.
Many House conservatives said that Mr McCarthy broke a series of promises he made to them in January of this year, when they forced the House to go into 15 rounds before he became speaker. Mr Scalise said he was not privy to those negotiations with conservatives in an interview with Punchbowl News.
“So I still don’t know what those agreements were,” he said. “Whatever they are, [conservatives] feel that the agreements were broken. That’s got to get resolved. Hopefully it does.”
