House cancels floor votes for rest of the week

The House of Representatives has cancelled all of its planned votes for the rest of the week after a handful of Republican lawmakers blocked advancement of a procedural rule and forced the chamber to remain in recess for most of Wednesday.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters that evening that he aimed to mend fences with the dissident conservative lawmakers and "try to work this out by the end of the night."

"What we’re gonna do is we’re gonna come back on Monday, work through it and be back working for the American public," he asserted. The House was slated to conduct its final votes for the week on Thursday afternoon, according to The Hill.

A handful of conservative lawmakers have indicated that they remain dissatisfied with the final terms of a compromise debt ceiling deal that McCarthy negotiated with President Joe Biden, with Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz saying the promises McCarthy made to his detractors in January "have been violated as a consequence of the debt limit deal."

McCarthy became speaker after 15 floor votes after making concessions to his conservative detractors, many of whom rank among the current batch of dissidents. The California Republican acknowledged he would face some difficulty in placating them, in part because "they don’t know what to ask for."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.