Key Republican urges McCarthy, GOP to ‘hold the line’ in debt ceiling talks

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) sent a memo to House Republican colleagues Wednesday urging them to “hold the line” with continued support for the conference’s sweeping debt limit bill in the face of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Biden aiming to negotiate a compromise that would likely strip out many conservative priorities.

In the memo, Roy listed major policies from the bill passed in April, dubbed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which paired a $1.5 trillion debt limit increase with around $4.8 trillion in deficit reductions over a decade and many conservative policy reforms.

“Each are critical and none should be abandoned solely for the quest of a ‘deal,'” Roy wrote.

Some Republicans saw the bill as a starting point for negotiations and a way to drag Biden to the negotiating table on the debt limit, with the expectation that not everything in the bill would be in a final deal. But Roy’s letter represents growing vocal resistance among the House GOP’s right flank to McCarthy striking a compromise deal with Biden that includes fewer cuts and policies than what was in the House GOP bill.

Some of the measures Roy cited in his letter are now at the forefront of debt limit negotiations, like reverting spending to fiscal 2022 levels, rescinding unused funds authorized to combat the effects of COVID-19, and beefing up work requirements for public assistance programs.

But Roy brought up a number of other measures that were in the bill, too.

The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act would give Congress increased ability to regulate or reject regulations and rules from federal agencies and was included in the GOP debt bill.

The GOP package would also rescind funds from an $80 billion boost to IRS funding for tax enforcement that Democrats passed last year, overturn Biden’s action to forgive student loans, and repeal clean energy tax credits passed by Democrats last year.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said the Republican debt bill was dead on arrival in the Senate, but that has not stopped the House GOP’s right flank from insisting that the Senate pass or modify it rather than willingly strip out measures from the bill in negotiations.

Roy’s memo follows the House Freedom Caucus last week urging McCarthy and Senate Republicans “to use every leverage and tool at their disposal to ensure the Limit, Save, Grow Act is signed into law.”

Roy also noted in his memo that he hopes talking points in it will “help as Speaker McCarthy continues to pressure President Biden to do what is right for the American people.”

“While House Republicans are fighting for hard-working American families facing a woke, weaponized government at odds with our way of life, President Biden and Democrats have been dragging their feet for weeks to fight for rich liberal elitists who want more spending, more government, more corporate subsidies, and less freedom,” Roy said.