Kevin McCarthy: Ending Motion to Recommit Would Deny Americans a 'Voice'

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said eliminating the motion to recommit would deny Americans a “voice” in the House during a press conference Thursday.

One reporter asked McCarthy if there were continuing negotiations over Republicans’ use of the motion to recommit, a procedural motion before a vote on a piece of legislation that allows the minority party in the House to change the bill.

If a motion to recommit were passed, it would allow the bill to go back to the bill’s committee of origin, and they would have to make the changes in the motion’s language before it could come up again for a House floor vote.

McCarthy said the motion to recommit grants the minority party and their constituents a final say before a bill comes up for a vote.

“If you remove a motion to recommit, you deny constituents across the country from having a voice. Something that no Congress has ever done. We never even thought about that when we were in the majority. You’re taking away the ability to have one amendment on a bill. These are procedural motions that every member has a right to do,” McCarthy said.

This procedural motion has often forced Democrats to make tough votes.

For instance, Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) voted against a motion to recommit that would have prevented labor unions from encouraging illegal aliens to join. She voted in favor of the motion last year.

House Democrats also blocked a motion in early March that would have eliminated a subway tunnel in Silicon Valley, which Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) championed, to finance more mental health services in the coronavirus bill.

“My resolution would ensure that mental health and suicide prevention services are provided in states where children do not have the option for in-person instruction in school,” Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK), the sponsor of the motion, said in March.