WASHINGTON — A conservative Republican at the center of the tortured effort to elect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he’d welcome a hard-fought battle over the U.S. debt ceiling, but said both parties should start negotiating terms for the increase now so it doesn’t go down to the wire.
“Our point is, let’s fight now to end the status quo,” Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Let’s get in the room now.”
Roy helped negotiate a deal with McCarthy giving conservatives more clout that helped give the leader enough backing to win the speakership by a single vote early Saturday on the 15th ballot.
