McCarthy Gives Way to Right Wing

“House Republican leaders are now betting they can come up with 218 GOP votes for the FY2024 defense authorization bill after essentially ending any hope of a bipartisan deal with Democrats,” Punchbowl News reports.

“Speaker Kevin McCarthy is giving the House Freedom Caucus and other conservative hardliners what they’ve demanded all week — dozens of ‘culture war’ amendment votes on the $886 billion NDAA package. Conservatives threatened to derail the defense-authorization bill unless they got these votes.”

“The House will take up these amendments today in what promises to be a long and bitterly partisan slugfest.”

Politico: “Republicans are gambling that allowing a bunch of contentious partisan amendments on the floor will keep conservatives in check, but will ultimately get voted down so Dems won’t oppose the bill.”