While Republicans didn’t achieve the “red wave” they had hoped for, their November victory set them up to “restoring the people’s House,” according to one Republican from Wisconsin.
Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who is the top contender to be Speaker of the House when Republicans officially retake the chamber next Congress, has put together a transition team with Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., committing to reopen the House to visitors.
“On the House side of the Capitol, the House has not been fully reopened since the beginning of the COVID pandemic,” Steil told Spectrum News.
Changes to visiting procedures were made because of the pandemic, limiting the number of people who can visit without properly being screened. In addtion to removing those restrictions, Steil is planning the return of Saturday Capitol visits for the public.
“And there’s probably some rational reasons, from a health standpoint, to slow the density of (visitors), but we never got back to normal,” Steil said. “We’re just going to rip the band-aid off all these COVID-era policies and get back to normal.”
Steil, a member of the House Committee on Financial Services, says Republicans are also committed to closing the purse. He called out Democrats for pushing through large spending measures like the Inflation Reduction Act with GOP support.
“I think the most important thing is we’re gonna be able to stop these horrific spending bills that have come through and jeopardize the financial security and ultimately the national security of the United States,” Steil said.
The Janesville, Wis. congressman said the American people will see the GOP turn “a lot of focus on energy,” adding that while the “Biden administration has pivoted” recently, the president will have to do more under a divide government.
“I think we should be having that type of investment in West Texas and North Dakota, and [we should] unleash American energy,” he said.
The GOP has also vowed to investigate President Joe Biden’s administration and his family. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the likely chairman of the Oversight Committee next year, says the president’s son Hunter Biden is in their crosshairs.
“I think you’re going to naturally see pushback, but in large part because there has been no accountability in so many federal agencies over the last two years,” Steil told Spectrum News.
McCarthy has been facing challenges within his party from the hard-right flank, with Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., announcing his bid for Speakership in January.
“I’m running for Speaker to break the establishment,” Biggs wrote on Twitter. “Kevin McCarthy was created by, elevated by, and maintained by the establishment.”
“I’m confident on Jan. 3, Speaker McCarthy will have the votes and will become Speaker of the House,” Steil told Spectrum News.
He said the internal dynamics of the conference are like “a long family road trip, and we all just got in the car.”
“But at the end of the day, I think you’re going to see the Republican Conference come together behind Speaker McCarthy,” Steil added.
He believes the conference will fall in line because Republican lawmakers share the same goal of “putting a check on these massive spending bills that have come through time and time again,” Stell said, adding: ”We’re going to have an opportunity to provide accountability.”
“In the scheme of whistleblowers, people that are going to come, want to share with a Member of Congress, what’s going wrong in any particular federal agency about how tax dollars are being used,” Steil added, in the spirit of accountability.
