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Speaker McCarthy’s job approval has surged 25 percentage points since taking the gavel on January 7th. As of April 11th, his approval amongst registered voters stands at +7 — with 44 percent approving, and 37 percent disapproving. Likewise, his standing with Republican voters has vastly improved with 67 percent approving, and just 12 percent disapproving. (Economist/YouGov Poll)
Speaker McCarthy has long said that structure dictates behavior. When Republicans assumed control of the House of Representatives, we inherited a broken institution that needed to be fixed.
Ended Remote Congress: Long after the pandemic receded, Democrats maintained their proxy voting scheme in the House – meaning Members of Congress didn’t have to show up to work to vote. This not only disenfranchised their constituents, but it also eroded the culture in Congress. Speaker McCarthy immediately ended proxy voting.
Opened Floor Debate to Offer Amendments: For the first time in seven years, the House debated more than 140 amendments under what is known as a modified open-rule — allowing any member to submit a germane amendment. The underlying bill sought to limit the president from releasing more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) without also developing a plan to increase the percentage of federal lands leased for oil and gas production. House Republicans passed this bill with the support of one Democrat (Rep. Golden of Maine).
Speaker McCarthy: “The entire time the Democrats were in the majority, you never had a bill come to this floor under an open rule. This is what we promised the American public. This is what we promised the members on both sides. There will be more openness, more opportunity for ideas to win at the end of the day, and as we move forward.”
Historic Committee Productivity: The Republican-led House is working at a historic pace. Earlier in March, the House held 42 committee hearings in a single day – marking a modern-day record.
Returning Integrity to the House Intelligence Committee:Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell were rejected from their selection to the House Intelligence Committee following their years long degradation of the House Intelligence Committee. Adam Schiff continuously misled the American public and abused his position as Chairman for partisan political gain while Eric Swalwell’s known relationship with a Chinese spy would have precluded him from obtaining a security clearance in the private sector – let alone sit on the Congressional panel guarding our nation’s secrets. This “misuse of the intelligence panel during the 116th and 117th Congresses severely undermined its primary national security and oversight missions – ultimately leaving our nation less safe,” Speaker McCarthy has said.
• 38 of 44 House bills earned bipartisan support.
• Only 6 bills have passed with Republican votes alone
• 24 of these votes, a majority of House Dems joined with Rs
• Five bills have passed through a divided Congress and gone to the President’s desk (3 laws, 2 vetoes)
Speaker McCarthy established the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party so that Congress speaks with one voice on the CCP’s malign influence economically, culturally, and militarily.
With a massively bipartisan vote of 365-65, the 118th Congress established the first ever U.S. Select Committee aimed at educating the American public on the issues we are facing as it relates to the CCP and developing policy recommendations that make sure the United States maintains our edge.
Areas the Committee is addressing include deceptive trade practices, risks to our supply chain, acquisition of U.S. agricultural land, pursuit of advanced technologies at the expense of U.S. intellectual property, using U.S. investment to power the CCP national security state, advancing its doctrine in U.S. academic institutions, and the malign influence, coercion, and lobbying efforts at the state, local and federal level to advance its agenda.
Speaker McCarthy hosted Taiwan President at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on April 5. This was the first meeting between a House Speaker and a Taiwan President on U.S. soil.
House Republicans introduced our Commitment to America last year – a legislative and oversight agenda that would help get our country back on track. After 100 days, we have made tremendous progress.
Last Congress, Speaker McCarthy established an Energy, Climate, and Conservation Task Force to develop energy policies that meet the real energy needs of our constituents and our country.
H.R. 1 is a culmination of that promise. This bill counters the Biden administration’s attack against domestic energy production and includes permitting reforms that will speed construction for major building projects nationwide. It passed the House with near unanimous Republican support and four Democrat “aye” votes.
The House passed a bill to block oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, our country’s emergency stockpile, from being sold to China. The bill prohibits the Department of Energy from selling oil from the SPR to companies owned or influenced by the Chinese Communist Party. H.R. 22 passed easily, 331-97, with 113 Democrats joining unanimous Republicans support.
House Republicans believe parents should be able to know what your children are learning, how your tax dollars are being spent, and whether your child is safe in school. That is exactly what the five parental rights within this bill seek to protect. The House passed H.R. 5 by a vote of 213 – 208.
1. Right to know what’s being taught in schools and to see reading material.
2. Right to be heard.
3. Right to see school budget and spending.
4. Right to protect their child’s privacy.
5. Right to be updated on any violent activity at school.
Speaker McCarthy and the Republican conference believe the American people deserve answers to every aspect of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The House voted unanimously to declassify U.S. intelligence information about the origins of COVID-19, and the President signed it into law.
The Democrat spending blowout over the past several years in the name of “covid relief” has left us with record inflation and sharp interest rate hikes. Yet, even after the President declared on CBS’ “60 Minutes” in September of 2022 that “the pandemic is over,” the Biden administration maintained the Covid National Emergency to keep spending taxpayer dollars. House Republicans passed legislation to immediately end the national emergency, and it was recently signed into law by the President.
Led by House Republicans, Congress blocked Washington, D.C.’s proposed soft-on-crime criminal code rewrite that treated violent criminals like victims and discarded the views of law enforcement. Congress sent a message to every city, county, and state that any policy that makes life difficult for police and easy for criminals is unacceptable. President Biden signed this bill into law.
The House passed a bill blocking the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule greenlighting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing in employer-sponsored retirement plans.
The DOL Final Rule reverses and modifies certain amendments that were made to the Investment Duties regulation in 2020, to include that a fiduciary’s determination with respect to an investment based on risk and return factors “may include the economic effects of climate change and other environmental, social, or governance factors on the particular investment or investment course of action. Overall, these changes encourage more plan fiduciaries to utilize ESG factors when selecting investments.
Retirement investment decisions should be about good returns to ensure a seamless retirement. Instead the Biden Administration is encouraging financial managers to make decisions that put left-wing environmental and social issues ahead of retirees’ financial security.
100 Democrats couldn’t vote for condemning “the horrors of socialism.” The measure, H.Con. Res. 9, was introduced by Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL), whose family fled Cuba, and ties socialist policies to the human rights violations under regimes in the Soviet Union, North Korea, Venezuela, China, and elsewhere, arguing they should never be implemented in the United States.
The House passed the “Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act” which would prohibit those federal employees from censoring lawful speech. The bill also prohibits agency employees from using their official authority or resources to influence or coerce a private sector platform to censor— including to remove, suppress, restrict, or add disclaimers or alerts to—any lawful speech posted on its platform by a person or entity.
Speaker McCarthy is seeking a responsible debt limit increase, and he wants to negotiate that deal with President Biden now.
“We cannot sustain the current path we are on. We must change the trajectory to put ourselves on a path to a stronger future.” – Speaker McCarthy
But President Biden is being irresponsible by refusing to engage in negotiations and refusing to even acknowledge the reckless government spending that has led to record inflation and rapidly rising interest rates.
• Biden has increased the deficit by $800 billion
• Inflation was 1.4% when Biden entered office. Today it’s 6.0%. Biden refuses to take responsibility.
• In the last four years, Democrats have increased discretionary spending by $400 billion – while from 2011 to 2018, Republicans decreased discretionary spending.
What’s equally alarming is not long ago, then-Vice President Biden recognized the importance of the “much larger looming issue” of our long-term debt. Biden stressed “we’ve got to make some real progress on that.” Back then, our national debt was around $14 trillion, while today the debt has increased to $31 trillion. Today, Biden has buried his head in the sand and refuses to negotiate at all.
Despite the President’s intransigence, Speaker McCarthy is driving toward a solution to this crisis.
Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel notes in a recent editorial titled, “McCarthy’s Debt Ceiling Offer”:
In a Tuesday letter to Mr. Biden, Mr. McCarthy notes the rapidly approaching “X” date for hitting the country’s borrowing limit and asks for a meeting. More notably, he unveils the GOP’s term sheet— laying out several spending reduction proposals as examples of what House Republicans might trade for a debt-ceiling hike. Democrats can no longer claim they don’t know what the GOP is asking for. Republicans have made their offer. Over to you, Mr. President.
While the country continues to wait for the President to wake up to this looming crisis, Speaker McCarthy is driving the message of needed fiscal discipline and economic growth.
On the 100th day of the Republican Majority, Speaker McCarthy will deliver a speech at the New York Stock Exchange. As he said in a letter to the President last month, House Republicans are united in that the best way to reduce our debt is to Limit Spending, Save Taxpayer Money, and Grow the Economy.
His speech will further outline some of our specific proposals to achieve these goals.
If President continues to refuse negotiations, House Republicans will go at it alone and pass a responsible debt-ceiling increase that puts our country a path to a better future.