Mr. McCarthy’s allies bargained throughout the day anyway with a group of defectors more amenable to trying to break the stalemate, with some negotiators missing votes as they bartered back and forth.
“The devil is in the details,” said Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina, when asked if he was open to voting for Mr. McCarthy in exchange for sweeping concessions.
The Republican leader had also committed to allowing the right-wing faction to pick a third of the party’s members on the powerful Rules Committee, which controls what legislation reaches the floor and in what form, according to a person who has been involved in the talks, who described them on condition of anonymity. Mr. McCarthy also said he would open government spending bills to a freewheeling debate in which any lawmaker could force votes on proposed changes, including those designed to scuttle or sink the measure.
The rebels have agitated for that change in an effort to give greater power over the federal purse strings to rank-and-file lawmakers, rather than the senior leaders who normally have carte blanche over such legislation. It could make it all but impossible to pass a spending bill in the House, leading to a government shutdown.
As private negotiations with the dissidents ground on and the seemingly endless filed votes continued on the House floor, some lawmakers resigned themselves to a dead-eyed state of arrested development, miserably trudging around the chamber carrying caffeinated beverages and wondering how they had reached this point.
“Can Congress declare war right now? Are we able to do anything?” asked Representative Mike Gallagher, Republican of Wisconsin.
Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, a moderate who has been unsparing in his criticism of the hard-right flank, suggested that the mutiny would not easily be forgotten.
“I am a Christian, I believe in forgiving; I can forgive the individual,” he said. “But when it comes to professional, who do you trust? There’s a lot of trust that’s been burned here.”
Reporting was contributed by Annie Karni, Luke Broadwater, Emily Cochrane, Christopher Cameron, Stephanie Lai, Zach Montague and Michael Gold.
