Kevin McCarthy tries to stamp out rebellion with overnight budget changes

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reversed course overnight and made two major changes to the Republican Party's debt limit bill.

The California Republican spent Tuesday trying to stamp out a rebellion against the GOP bill from Midwestern lawmakers who wanted to preserve ethanol tax credits passed under the Inflation Reduction Act and conservatives who demanded more spending cuts and stiffer work requirements for food stamp recipients, reported Semafor.

"At about 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, Republican leaders filed amendments to their package aimed at winning over the holdouts," the website reported. "With the changes, the bill would no longer repeal some of the biofuels tax credits the corn-belt Republicans expressed concern over, and would allow companies that had already made business decisions based on the credits to claim two others.

"The amendment would also move up the start date of new work requirements for the federal food stamp program by a year, a key conservative demand, and nix additional IRA spending."

McCarthy can only afford to lose four GOP votes, and it's not clear whether the last-minute amendments will satisfy the holdouts -- which Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) counted at eight. But it's possible the speaker will bring up the bill Wednesday and dare them to vote against it.

“We just may find out how good Republican leadership is at twisting arms,” said budget expert Brian Riedl at the conservative Manhattan Institute. “This becomes a key loyalty vote.”

GOP leaders are expecting at least one Republican and one Democratic absence on Wednesday, although Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Katherine Clark are pushing their caucus to show up to vote.

“Hakeem and Katherine, especially as our whip, really made it clear a couple weeks after that they want everybody to show up,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA).