Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., has released a list of demands for Mike Johnson, R-La., to earn her vote for House speaker. The pair met Monday, Dec. 30, to discuss the speaker election coming up on Friday, Jan. 3, where every vote will count due to a razor-thin Republican majority.
Spartz’s demands were all related to fiscal policy. She released a statement with an illustration that portrayed the U.S. as the Titanic and the national debt as the iceberg.
“Our next speaker must show courageous leadership to get our country back on track before this “Titanic” strikes an iceberg at any moment,” Spartz stated. “Severe fiscal calamities often lead to unrest and more government control.”
She said the next speaker must create at least temporary structures in the House for authorizations, reconciliation offset policies and spending audits.
Authorizations are Congress’ seal of approval to establish, continue or modify an agency or program.
Reconciliation offset policies are attempts by Congress to go through the budget and eliminate a dollar spent on something that’s considered no longer necessary for every new dollar it authorizes.
Spending audits are already conducted to check for waste, fraud and abuse within departments and agencies. However most agencies, like the Pentagon, fail their audits and can’t keep track of the money they spend and assets they buy.
Johnson needs an outright majority to win the gavel, meaning he can lose two or three votes depending on how many members are present. Spartz said if Johnson comes up short, there are others who are interested in running, but they won’t say so publicly because they don’t want to hurt Johnson’s chances.
“We will have a speaker, I have no doubt about that and we’ll have a good speaker,” Spartz said on Fox. “But I think the speaker needs to have commitments to the American people to deliver on the agenda.”
If the House fails to elect a speaker before Monday, Jan. 6, it will delay the certification of the presidential election. In a worst case scenario, Congress doesn’t certify the election before Jan. 20 and Donald Trump’s inauguration is delayed.
It took Republicans three weeks to elect Johnson after Kevin McCarthy was ousted, so if history repeats itself, Trump will be sworn in late.
