McCarthy working to satisfy GOP hard-liners demanding culture war amendments to defense bill
The House has cleared its first procedural hurdle on the National Defense Authorization Act but the fight continues as Republicans face a slew of controversial amendments The House on Wednesday cleared its first procedural hurdle on the National Defense Authorization Act, approving a rule on non-controversial amendments to the annual military spending and budget bill. But the fight continues as Republicans remain far from agreement on how to tackle issues including abortion, diversity at the Pentagon and Ukraine funding -- all of which could tank the legislation. Facing another test of how he can corral his party, Speaker Kevin McCarthy is working with GOP leadership to navigate through the rest of the amendments for the defense bill while having ongoing meetings and talks with the hard-line conservatives who are proposing controversial changes. "We did the first part now. You know we have 1,500 amendments. It takes a lot of time to work through all of it," McCarthy said...