Andy Biggs And the U.S. House Leadership

Andy Biggs, the conservative Republican from East Mesa/ Gilbert, has become the pivotal force in either confirming or denying the leadership of the Republican majority in the House. Either by becoming Speaker himself, or determining who will become speaker, no Arizona Congressman has held that kind of power since John Rhodes.

Kevin McCarthy certainly seems the odds-on favorite, but due to a very narrow victory in the recent congressional elections, he needs to get 218 votes by January 3rd.

In a recent interview with John Soloman of Just the News, Biggs suggested that McCarthy does not have the votes. Biggs would like the position as well as Majority Leader, and he also could deny the post to McCarthy because the Freedom Caucus that Biggs chairs may have the swing votes to confirm or deny the Majority Leader.

In the interview, Biggs said he was actively calling members for his own candidacy.

What does Mr. Biggs want? In short, he thinks Republicans should be more than just speed bumps for Democrats. About all Republican leadership has been able to do is slow down the aggressive agenda of the Democrats, but it has not been able to either block or reverse many of the trends Biggs finds quite negative.  Biggs finds this inability due to many structural flaws in the way House rules and procedures have changed over the years.

For example, committees have lost the power that they once exercised. Legislation is often bundled in a way that requires a Congressman to vote up or down on the budget in one bill, stuffed with special interest legislation that has to be swallowed without much ability to discriminate. Often this legislation is so huge and complex, no one even has reasonable time to even read the legislation. Huge omnibus bills are created by leadership and then foisted on the membership, who can’t exercise much judgment or discretion. This reduces substantially input from members and their ability to represent their district, as opposed to just representing their party affiliation.

Congress has not even had a budget for almost 20 years, floating the country each year by continuing resolutions.

Biggs thinks all tools in the parliamentary toolbox need to be re-activated. This would include devolving power away from the center of House leadership, giving greater power to committees, and getting back to single-issue legislation. He also thinks the impeachment process and budgetary threats will be necessary to bring “rogue” Federal agencies to follow the law.

In an article Biggs penned for American Greatness, he suggests the power to appropriate money, which lies solely in the House of Representatives, should be used as leverage against the Department of Defense, which under President Biden, has declared that members of the Armed Services are “white supremacists”, and launched a whole laundry list of Woke social causes that have degraded combat readiness. It is only through controlling the money that Congress can get such large departments to stay on mission and not become training camps for left-wing ideology.

Impeachment has to be considered. For example, the head of Homeland Security continues to blithely say “the border is under control”, all the while refusing to enforce existing law.

It will be interesting to see if Biggs can either get concessions from McCarthy or whether new candidates for House Speaker besides the two of them will emerge.

Right now it appears Andy Biggs has leverage and he intends to use it.

As long as a relatively small number of conservatives can hold together, and not cave under pressure, they have a chance to make a significant change in leadership and the way the House does its business.

To be sure, getting rule changes, and bucking the party establishment, are long shots without great odds of success. But the extremely narrow victory in the House has created an unusual circumstance.

One senses that Andy Biggs understands this is a rare political occasion that cannot be ignored.

Taking a long shot is not that unusual for Biggs, however. His very entry into politics was an extreme long shot in the first place. It was only after he won the Publishing Clearance House sweepstakes, which provided him a secure independent source of income, that Biggs got into politics and quit practicing law.

At The Prickly Pear, we think the key to getting control of extremist ideology and rouge agencies, is for the House to regain control of its rightful Constitutional power, the ability to control the purse strings.

We wish him well in his epic battle.