House GOP eyes a backup plan if it can’t pick a speaker

Congress

Republicans hope to choose their next speaker as soon as Wednesday. Some of them, though, are crafting private contingency plans in case it takes much longer.

One idea circulating among senior Republicans is empowering the acting speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), to proceed with finishing the annual spending debate. That includes possibly negotiating a spending deal with Democrats ahead of the Nov. 17 shutdown deadline, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.

“There’s a lot of merit in that” approach, House Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told POLITICO. “It’d be better if we can just come to a conclusion [on the speakership], but I don’t want to stay dysfunctional.”

Shifting more power to McHenry for the moment, Cole added, is “something I’ve been talking to a number of members about.”

What’s not clear is whether the rest of the GOP conference would agree, particularly with the party focused on electing former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s successor as soon as Wednesday.

Yet Cole is not the only Republican concerned that their currently-paralyzed party might otherwise struggle to navigate the upcoming shutdown deadline at all.

Some proponents of a firm backup plan remember the hardline theatrics that forced out former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) — right after he cemented an unpopular and bipartisan spending deal that took the pressure off his successor, then-Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

This time, McCarthy has offered no fiscal parachute to the future speaker — Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, or perhaps another person entirely. Instead, the Californian’s successor will catapult right into another spending crisis, squaring off against united Democrats with the GOP already tearing itself apart over McCarthy’s bipartisan spending patch last month.

Beyond a spending agreement, the new GOP leader will face enormous foreign policy questions as well, chiefly decisions on U.S. aid to Ukraine and now Israel, too.

“We have 44 days till the next government shutdown. And we’re getting closer to that every single day. Israel’s in a ground war,” Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) said. “We have to get a speaker, but we have to get a speaker with the tools to be able to succeed. Otherwise, we’re in the same boat we were last week.”