travel<\/a> expenses and gutted diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.<\/p>\nAfter a batch of the more controversial amendments were made in order for votes in the wee hours of Thursday morning, conservatives continued to keep the pressure on leadership to see them adopted.<\/p>\n
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) had warned on Thursday that \u201cthere better be some damn good whipping\u201d on the amendments \u2014 and said leadership had committed to whipping in favor of some of them.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\nApproval of many of those amendments won over most of the hardliners for the final bill, and McCarthy helped sway at least one holdout that remained.<\/p>\n
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) had vowed to vote against the NDAA over it containing authorization of funds to Ukraine, but changed her mind Friday after McCarthy asked her to be a key negotiator on the eventual conference committee that will resolve differences with the Senate\u2019s version of the defense bill.<\/p>\n
It keeps with an all-carrot, no-stick strategy leaders are taking in managing the House GOP.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n\u201cYou don\u2019t have a stick in this job,\u201d House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said in an interview a few days before the NDAA passed. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the ability to walk into someone\u2019s office and tell them, \u2018If you don\u2019t do this, you can kiss this goodbye.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Just a month ago, an alleged attempt to use a stick resulted in even greater headaches for GOP leaders. After Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) claimed that a member of leadership threatened to keep one of his pieces of legislation from getting a vote, a small group of conservatives voted against a procedural rule and brought legislative floor activity to a standstill for a week.<\/p>\n
Instead, Emmer \u2014 a former hockey coach \u2014 is skating through the chaos.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n\u201cWhether it was the privilege motion experience, or the floor experience with the shutdown \u2013 I mean, I understand people who have been here for a long time [say], \u2018That\u2019s a no-no, we don\u2019t do that,\u2019\u201d Emmer said. \u201cWell, just because it\u2019s never been done before, don\u2019t for a second think it won\u2019t be done now. People are rewriting rules, they\u2019re making their own history. And our job is to make sure we\u2019re hearing them, and we understand what it is that is driving them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes the chaos takes him by surprise. He recalled one week \u2014 he believes it was the week the House GOP passed its\u00a0border bill\u00a0\u2014 staff told him on Monday that it should be a pretty easy one. Later, he had nearly 50 Republican members in his office as they worked out a solution to a small bit of language that caused issues with members.<\/p>\n
\u201cHoly cow, that is absolutely insane. And we managed to get it done,\u201d Emmer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/aside>\nHis approach is working for now. Freedom Caucus member Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) said he has been \u201cconsistently impressed\u201d by Emmer\u2019s whip operation.<\/p>\n
McCarthy\u2019s move to lean in to conservative policy with the NDAA this week might help him repair trust with the right flank as he\u00a0negotiates spending levels and appropriations bills\u00a0with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a really hugely significant step to repairing the disunity that occurred after the debt ceiling bill,\u201d Bishop said of the NDAA and its process.<\/p>\n
Some of the pattern is due to the political reality of a five-seat majority.<\/p>\n
Roy said that aside from the weekly drama \u201cbeing utterly exhausting and tiring,\u201d it is \u201cindicative\u201d of that challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a divided Congress with a divided government and executive branch with a thin majority in the House. This is what you\u2019re going to do,\u201d Roy said. \u201cYou got to work hard, give and take, talk to your colleagues. Find a way to move things through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some see that conflict as healthy for the House GOP.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a dynamic House majority. It is the most dynamic House majority that Republicans have seen in 25 years,\u201d said Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.).<\/p>\n
The pressures of getting the votes for the defense bill did not stop McCarthy from setting up a photo line in Statuary Hall and spending around 45 minutes taking photos with tourists on Thursday.<\/p>\n
He told one young woman<\/a>\u00a0about a book he just read by psychologist Angela Duckworth called \u201cGrit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cYou want to know the best way to know if someone\u2019s going to be successful? Perseverance. You never give up,\u201d McCarthy told her.<\/p>\n
Mychael Schnell contributed.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nCopyright 2023 Nexstar Media<\/a> Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n
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