Washington Wednesday: Holding Congress accountable

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 25th of September.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Time now for Washington Wednesday.

Last week, The House Freedom Caucus elected a new chairman. The group includes some of the most conservativeRepublicans in the House … and they have a track record of butting heads with leadership over spending. As the House gears up to vote on a short-term stopgap bill aimed at averting a government shutdown next Monday, the question facing the caucus is what kind of stance will their new leader take?

WORLD reporter Leo Briceno has the story.

LEO BRICENO: Maryland Rep. Andy Harris isn’t afraid of playing hardball with budget negotiations.

ANDY HARRIS: If we don’t get a good deal in December, I would urge the speaker to just say, ‘hey, come see us on January 3 when we potentially control both houses and will control the presidency by the end of January.

Harris has been in Congress since 2011, and sits on the powerful appropriations committee. As of last week, he’s Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.

Historically, the Freedom Caucus has fought tooth and nail against funding extensions—like the one the House is voting on today. The House is set to consider a short-term bill that would extend the government’s current spending levels through December 20th. Without it, the government would hit a partial shutdown next Monday.

Last year, five members of the Freedom Caucus joined with three other Republicans and all Democrats to remove U.S. Speaker Kevin McCarthy over this exact issue.

This time around, the House has a new speaker, and the Freedom Caucus has a new leader. Will history repeat itself? Here’s Harris:

HARRIS: It all depends on what the speaker’s plans are for December... I need to hear that if the Democrats are unwilling to negotiate in good faith that he’s willing to just kick this into the next year, including a shutdown in December if necessary.”

The Freedom Caucus doesn’t have any direct say in spending legislation. But since its founding in 2015, it has used its influence to punish GOP leaders in the House who don’t live up to their conservative promises.

JIM CURRY: They knew what they wanted to be, but I don't know that early on it was obvious, to the leadership, that this was going to be a threat.

That’s Jim Curry, professor of political science at the University of Utah. He says the party took the Freedom Caucus more seriously when Ohio representative Jim Jordan initiated a push to remove then House Speaker John Boehner. Here’s Boehner in 2015.

JOHN BOEHNER: It's become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution. So this morning, I informed my colleagues that I would resign from the speakership and resign from Congress at the end of October.

Curry believes the Freedom Caucus is just the most recent expression of longstanding traits in the Republican party. Back in 1994, Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich famously made a “Contract with America.”

CURRY: There's always been this element in the Republican Party going back to the late 70s, early 80s of this sort of anti-leadership, ‘we're not going to go along.’ ‘We're going to try to push you to the right.’ This is what Gingrich was doing…it’s kind of the same thing where he was willing to be a thorn in his own party’s side trying to push them to take stronger positions, harder edge positions.

Freedom Caucus members say their job is to make sure Republican leaders keep their promises.

Here’s Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina. He’s a member of the Freedom Caucus and sits on the House Rules Committee.

RALPH NORMAN: It’s the conscience of the American people. It’s the conscience of where America is… Americans don’t expect us to win every fight. They do expect us to fight.

Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, is the outgoing chairman of the Freedom Caucus. He says the Freedom Caucus has helped implement procedural changes in the 118th Congress that increased lawmaker participation and transparency.

BOB GOOD: I think it’s clear that the Freedom Caucus has been responsible for holding accountable the speaker, and for opening the process of selecting a speaker… Secondly, the Freedom Caucus is absolutely responsible for restoring in large part regular order, increasing the voice of every member of congress through imperfect but large return to single-subject legislation, 72-hours to review legislation before we vote …And the Freedom Caucus has brought debates within our spending process to be how much are Republicans going to fight to cut spending, not if we’re going to fight to cut spending. I think all of those are good things.”

Good lost a close primary back in July, so his time in Congress will end in January. Although he’s going to serve out the remainder of his term, Good decided to step aside and give the Freedom Caucus a chance to select new leadership.

Some Republican members outside of the Freedom Caucus don’t see the group’s mission the same way as Good or as Norman do. Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, for instance, believes the group’s willingness to undermine party leadership is particularly harmful.

DERRICK VAN ORDEN: The role of the Freedom Caucus in this congress is to do their utmost for Republicans to lose the majority. And I’ve told this to all those guys to their face that if we're not in the majority next Congress—meaning we can’t fulfill Donald Trump’s agenda, because they’re gonna take the Senate—it lies solely on the shoulders of the members of the Freedom Caucus, in particular the eight guys—seven guys, one gal—that voted to get rid of Kevin McCarthy.”

Van Orden believes that the Freedom Caucus has a bad habit of succumbing to the loudest voices in the group.

VAN ORDEN They sure know how to stand right there and scream to the sky, don’t they? They really know how to fundraise. And again, I’m talking about very few of the Freedom Caucus. Because It ain’t clay, it ain’t Eli, it ain’t Andy. A whole bunch of those people are solid people.”

He’s referring there to Clay Higgins of Louisianan, Eli Crane of Arizona—and Andy Harris, the new chair.

Harris is closer to the “establishment” that the Freedom Caucus has railed against in recent years. He’s one of the 12 Republicans tasked with shepherding spending legislation through Congress. Curry, the professor from the University of Utah, says that’s kind of the way that the group has been trending. He doesn’t think that’s a mistake.

CURRY: They have become more open to, or willing to, or wanting to grab traditional reins of power.”

In addition to being a little more a part of the establishment, Harris has also diverged from other Freedom Caucus members on legislative votes this congress.

Since January of 2023, members of the House Freedom Caucus have helped defeat 11 bills that came to the floor for a vote. Of those 11 votes, Bob Good joined in on those efforts six times. Harris joined in only once.

PRO CODES VOTE FAILS: Two thirds not being in the affirmative, the rules are not suspended and the bill is not passed.

His voting record may signal that he’s less willing to join in on brazen displays of rebellion against party leadership. Or it might mean the Freedom Caucus wanted to go with someone who could further their goals in a more understated way.

For now, Harris is playing it aggressive. Assuming that Congress extends government funding to December 20th, Harris says he’s not ruling out a spending fight that would shut down the government right before Christmas if it means cutting spending in some way.

HARRIS: In the end, I think the Speaker has to be willing to shut down the government in December. And you know, we just, I think you oughta just shut it down or you punt it into the new year. Either way, works for me in December.

Reporting for WORLD in Washington, D.C., I’m Leo Briceno.

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