Republican House Speaker faces ouster threat for avoiding shutdown

Top US House Republican Kevin McCarthy could face an untimely end to his role as speaker if party hardliners oust him, for averting a costly government shutdown with a stopgap bill that drew more support from Democrats than Republicans.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted 335-91 to adopt a 45-day stopgap measure hours before funding for federal agencies was set to expire. The Democratic-led Senate later approved the same bill with bipartisan support and sent it to Presid ent Joe Biden to sign into law.

But soon after the House action, hardline Republican conservatives began targeting McCarthy's role as speaker, claiming he had scored a victory for the "Uniparty" of Washington.

"Should he remain Speaker of the House?" Republican Representative Andy Biggs, a leading hardliner, asked on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

McCarthy decided to bring a vote on a measure that could win Democratic support, knowing full well that it could jeopardize his job. One of his advisers told Reuters the speaker believed some hardliners would try to oust him under any circumstances.

"Go ahead and try," McCarthy said in comments directed at his opponents on Saturday. "You know what? If I have to risk my job for standing up for the American public, I will do that."

Republican bill's failure

The bipartisan measure succeeded a day after Biggs and 20 other hardliners blocked a Republican stopgap bill that contained sharp spending cuts and immigration and border restrictions, all of which hardliners favor.

The Republican bill's failure ended that party's hopes of moving a conservative measure and opened the door to the bipartisan measure that was backed by 209 House Democrats and 126 Republicans. Ninety Republicans opposed the stopgap.

Hardliners complained that the measure, known as a continuing resolution, or CR, left in place policies favored by Democrats including Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"Kevin McCarthy put a CR on the Floor that got 209 Democrat votes, since it kept in place the Biden-Pelosi-Schumer policies that are destroying the country and the spending levels that are bankrupting us," hardline Representative Bob Good said on X.

Under an agreement McCarthy reached with hardliners to become speaker in January, just one lawmaker can set his potential ouster in motion by moving to "vacate the chair."

Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, who has openly threatened such action, made clear what it would take days before the Saturday vote.