Amid battles over government funding and a new motion by one Republican for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. to vacate the Speaker's chair relating to such fights, calls emerged to underline that no further funding should be appropriated to Ukraine until the United States begins protecting its own borders.
Remarking on Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., activating a fire alarm prior to a key government funding vote, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, quipped that Republicans should be the ones pulling a proverbial alarm.
"If anybody should be pulling a fire alarm, it should be Republicans because of the massive dumpster-fire that we have at the southern border and the dumpster-fire we have here spending a whole lot of money we don't have and racking up debt," Roy said.
Roy noted he voted against the short-term continuing resolution passed Saturday at the last minute to fund the government for the next 45 days. Ninety-one Republicans voted against it, along with Illinois Democrat Mike Quigley who objected to the lack of Ukraine aid therein.
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"So now we've got to work hard," Roy said of facing just over a month until the new deadline. "We've got to use the leverage we have in front of us."
He said Congress' top priority should be to reduce spending and pass individualized appropriations bills as opposed to an omnibus – and also to make sure domestic priorities trump foreign aid.
"[W]e need to make sure that not $1 is going to Ukraine – not $1 is going to Ukraine unless we do our job to secure the border first," said Roy, a co-sponsor and vocal proponent of H.R. 2 – the Secure the Border Act introduced by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla. in May.
"And even then, I'm not interested in continuing to fund a proxy-war. But we've got to do our job to leverage that to force change."
In a statement following his no-vote on the C.R., Roy said he however did vote for a bill that would've extended government funding for a 30-day window, along with nearly a one-third reduction for "government bureaucracy" not affecting defense, veterans or homeland security.
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That particular bill, he said, had also included the text of H.R. 2.
Reacting to Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz' motion lodged late Monday to "vacate the chair" – or essentially eject McCarthy from the speakership – Roy said his colleague is correct in the argument he made as far as rejecting the status quo, but did not directly address his view of McCarthy's future.
"This is not about personalities. This is about doing our job," he said. "We have a massive crisis at the southern border endangering our American citizens and the migrants who seek to come here. We have a crisis in terms of our debt and spending."
Only two other motions-to-vacate the Speaker's chair have ever been made: In 2015, then-Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., authored a motion aimed at then-Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, but it was referred to the House Rules Committee and did not come to the floor for a vote. Boehner ultimately resigned on his own.
The only privileged motion to vacate the chair came in 1910, when then-Speaker Joseph Cannon, R-Ill., said he would allow one against himself -- reportedly to prove he still maintained strong support amid intraparty discord.
Rep. Albert Burleson, D-Texas, soon introduced one, but Cannon survived that vote.
