The lengthy process to find the next House speaker could could pay off big when the nation faces a debt-limit crisis later this year, lawmakers say.
That's because several conservatives want the next speaker to make a stand against passing a clean debt limit increase. That would set up a major fight with President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats, The Hill reported.
Anti-McCarthy conservatives say the next speaker must insist on using the debt limit as leverage to enact major spending reforms, which Senate Democrats the last decade have dismissed as a nonstarter.
The last time Congress face a debt limit crisis was 2011, which also was the first year of a new House Republican majority. An agreement was reached after the federal government came within days of defaulting on its debt obligations.
Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Tuesday and Wednesday failed to receive enough votes during the first two days of the new Congress to become speaker.
McCarthy made a major deal with key holdout votes Wednesday night, and House members will return noon Thursday to continue voting.
Although the Treasury Department will not say when the debt limit will expire, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates it will need to be raised sometime after July, The Hill reported.
Lawmakers in both parties are concerned that whomever becomes speaker will have a difficult time passing debt limit legislation or regular spending bills given the GOP's slim five-seat majority.
McCarthy in October said he would be willing to use the debt limit legislation as leverage to force spending cuts, but conservatives question his conviction.
"Us 20 [voting against McCarthy] want changes, and we're going to stay here until we get it," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told reporters Wednesday. "Could McCarthy all of a sudden morph into a fiscal conservative? We'll see.
"Is he willing to shut the government down rather than raise the debt ceiling? That's a nonnegotiable item."
House conservatives last month circulated a "Dear Colleague" letter demanding the next speaker "commit to not raising the debt ceiling without a concrete plan to cap spending and operate under a budget that balances in 10 years," The Hill reported.
However, Senate Republicans insist debt ceiling legislation with spending caps will not pass the Democrat-led Senate.
The result could be a stalemate that puts the nation's credit rating at risk or the federal government on the verge of default.
"That's not going to get 60 votes. That's math," a Senate GOP aide told The Hill.
The aide added, "It's going to be a challenge" to pass legislation to raise the debt limit.
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