House conservatives are heaping criticism on a plan to temporarily empower interim Speaker Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., to move legislation, an effort that’s been gaining momentum as Republicans’ struggle to find a new speaker drags on for over two weeks.
“Oh, Hell no. Hades no,” Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, told reporters when asked about it. Fallon estimated that two-thirds of the Republican conference also don’t back the plan.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital he was “opposed” to it as well. He called the plan the creation of a “Democrat-deal speaker” on X.
“It’s now time to get a speaker. And I realized it hasn’t been successful. But it’s time for us to work. It’s got to be done in the Republican caucus,” Norman said.
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Both had been supporting Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, for speaker. Jordan failed to clinch a 217-vote majority on two rounds of voting so far, and an expected third round was never formally set as House Republicans huddle for hours behind closed doors trying to plot a path forward.
Now, two sources have confirmed a report to Fox News Digital that Jordan would back a plan to empower McHenry through early January and remain speaker-designate for the time being.
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Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., another lawmaker who voted for Jordan twice, said it was time to “move on” as a conference and argued that the McHenry plan would mean other Republicans do not have a fair shot to run for speaker if they wanted to.
“It is enabling one person to continue to try to campaign. Why [can’t] other people campaign at the same time? So I’d find if we basically allowed [McHenry] to do that, is it fair for us to just put all our eggs in one basket, who’s losing votes? Probably not,” Murphy said.
Murphy added that such a plan likely would not pass without Democratic support.
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“Voting on a Speaker Pro Tem is distraction from our primary role, and it does create a circumstance where there might, might be more chaos,” Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., said.
House Freedom Caucus Policy Chair Chip Roy, R-Texas, told reporters, “I’m pretty public, I don’t support it. We should go choose a speaker. That’s what the Constitution tells us to do.”
And Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., predicted that the resolution was dead altogether.
“It’s not going to happen,” Donalds told reporters. “I think that is the decision as I understand it. And I think even Patrick, to his credit and to his fidelity to the U.S. Constitution, we cannot just drop powers in the lap of somebody. We have to elect a speaker.”