The contours of a deal that could make Republican leader Kevin McCarthy the US House speaker have begun to emerge after three gruelling days and 11 failed votes in a political spectacle unseen in a century.
The drama has left Republicans in disarray and exposed anew the fragility of American democracy.
The House will be back at it later on Friday, with Republicans trying to elect their new House speaker — this time against the backdrop of the second anniversary of the January 6th, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
The deadly attack was an unimaginable scene of chaos which shook the country when a mob of then-president Donald Trump’s supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying the Republican’s 2020 election defeat.
Mr McCarthy made no promises of a final vote that would secure him the speaker’s gavel, but glimmers of a deal with at least some of the far-right holdouts who have denied him support were emerging.
“We’ve got some progress going on,” Mr McCarthy said late on Thursday, brushing back questions about the lengthy, messy process.
“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
The agreement Mr McCarthy presented to the holdouts from the conservative Freedom Caucus and others centres around rules changes they have been seeking for months.
Those changes would shrink the power of the speaker’s office and give rank-and-file politicians more influence in drafting and passing legislation.
Even if Mr McCarthy is able to secure the votes he needs, he will emerge as a weakened speaker, having given away some powers, leaving him constantly under threat of being voted out by his detractors.
But he would also be potentially emboldened as a survivor of one of the more brutal fights for the gavel in US history.
At the core of the emerging deal is the reinstatement of a House rule that would allow a single politician to make a motion to “vacate the chair”, essentially calling a vote to oust the speaker.
Mr McCarthy had resisted allowing it, because it had been held over the head of past Republican speaker John Boehner, chasing him to early retirement.
The chairman of the chamber’s Freedom Caucus, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who had been a leader in Mr Trump’s efforts to challenge his presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, appeared receptive to the proposed package, tweeting an adage from Ronald Reagan: “Trust but verify.”
Other wins for the holdouts include provisions in the proposed deal to expand the number of seats available on the House Rules Committee, to mandate 72 hours for Bills to be posted before votes and to promise to try for a constitutional amendment that would impose federal limits on the number of terms a person could serve in the House and Senate.
Lest hopes get ahead of reality, conservative holdout Ralph Norman of South Carolina said: “This is round one.”
It could be the makings of a deal to end a standoff that has left the House unable to fully function.
Members have not been sworn in, and almost no other business can happen.
A memo sent out by the House’s chief administrative officer on Thursday evening said committees “shall only carry-out core Constitutional responsibilities”.
Payroll cannot be processed if the House is not functioning by January 13th.
After a long week of failed votes, Thursday’s tally was dismal: Mr McCarthy lost the seventh, eighth and then historic ninth, 10th and 11th rounds of voting, surpassing the number from 100 years ago in the last drawn-out fight to choose a speaker.
The California Republican exited the chamber and quipped about the moment: “Apparently I like to make history.”
The disorganised start to the new Congress pointed to difficulties ahead with Republicans now in control of the House, much the way that some past Republican speakers, including Mr Boehner, had trouble leading a rebellious right flank. The result: government shutdowns, standoffs and Mr Boehner’s early retirement.
The longest fight for the gavel started in late 1855 and dragged on for two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery in the run up to the Civil War.
