Contact:
Daniel Tellez
202-225-6611
daniel.tellez@mail.house.gov
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Fulcher released the following statement on the vote for Speaker of the House:
"When the process of selecting a Republican nominee for Speaker of the House first began, conservative members of the Republican conference — myself included — immediately engaged with Republican leaders to express our concerns on how the House of Representatives had operated under previous House leadership. I joined my colleagues in raising these concerns and held many discussions with prospective leaders on the concentration of power by past speakers - especially under Speaker Pelosi - at the expense of legislative input from individual members.
These tactics have turned the House into an institution where only the speaker’s preferred policies make it to the floor, and where the expertise of individual members is sacrificed at the benefit of leadership and their allies. After much debate and negotiating, conservatives were successful in securing real concessions that would give members tools to hold leadership accountable, open up the legislative process, and would add rules that restore fiscal sanity to our federal budget process. You can read these proposed rules here.
As conservative members of the House, we were correct in demanding more from Republican leadership: more transparency, more member input, and more oversight of our federal government. But now that key conservative concerns have been addressed, it is time to govern.
Today, I am joining more than 200 of my colleagues – from Jim Jordan to Steve Scalise, Jim Banks to Thomas Massie – in supporting Kevin McCarthy for Speaker knowing that we have the tools to hold Republican leaders accountable to their word, and a detailed plan to enact the conservative policies that delivered us the majority in the House of Representatives."
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