A revolt from conservatives thrust the House floor into a state of limbo again Wednesday morning, with Republican leaders forced to delay a second try at advancing a rule GOP Conservatives shot down one day earlier. The underlying legislation stalled by the defeated rule included two measures to prohibit federal bans of gas stoves and two others designed to curb federal regulations on industry. The rule ultimately failed, 220-206, after the five-minute vote was held open for more than 50 minutes, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) joining 11 other Republicans to oppose the bill — a strictly tactical move that allows him to bring it up later. And it made history, no rule had failed to pass a floor vote since November 14, 2002 when Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) was speaker. The driving force behind the clash involved Representative Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia), who has been embroiled in a back-and-forth with Scalise over the Georgia Republican’s legislation to prevent a federal ban on pistol stabilizing braces. Clyde last week accused leadership of threatening to block his bill from receiving a floor vote if he opposed the rule on the debt ceiling bill. Scalise said Tuesday morning he informed Clyde it was Republican opposition, not his vote on last week’s rule, that was preventing a vote, but GOP leadership was “working hard” to get the legislation passed. Majority Leader Scalise scheduled a vote for today at 12:20 P.M. on a rule to advance the four bills related to gas stoves and regulatory reform. But when that time rolled around, leadership was forced to recess the chamber as the talks to break the impasse continued. With Democrats certain to oppose future rules on all partisan measures, just a handful of conservatives have the power to block the entirety of the Republican agenda into the indefinite future and some suggested they’re ready to do just that.
For today, the Senate met at 10 A.M. and is expected to hold a confirmation vote on David Crane’s nomination to be an Undersecretary of Energy for Infrastructure which is a new role at the Department of Energy, created by the Biden Administration and charged with implementing the historic clean energy investments made by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Senate will also hold a cloture vote on Dale E. Ho’s nomination to be a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York.
