Just one floor below, with binders tucked under their arms, two negotiators tapped by President Biden entered the south door of the Capitol, heading toward a meeting where they would work to find a solution to the looming crisis. Joining them was Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), whom McCarthy has plucked from a cast of 222 House Republicans to hammer out the critical deal needed to avoid a catastrophic economic default on the United States’ debt.
McCarthy’s ability to keep up with the vast aspects of his speaker duties is the result of his deep trust in Graves, whom the California Republican has quickly elevated after seeing in the Louisianian the potential to assuage differences, hammer out deals and translate compromise into policy. Graves’s success in helping find consensus among Republicans to elect McCarthy speaker and corralling the disparate ideological factions of the conference during the first several months of this year — a daunting task by any measure — is why McCarthy’s allies say Graves, 51, is the obvious pick to represent Republicans in ongoing negotiations with the White House.
But while Graves’s calm demeanor and attentiveness have earned him respect from many lawmakers, several of his more conservative colleagues worry the more traditional, but still staunchly conservative, Republican’s openness to striking a deal with Democrats will misrepresent — or completely ignore — their attempts to sharply cut spending. Others are irked that Graves has risen so quickly after eight years in the House and does not have the requisite experience for such a high-stakes mission, having never served as committee chair or been elected by his colleagues to leadership.
The negotiations have already been a test for Graves.
Late Friday morning, Graves exited the first-floor meeting room in the Capitol where he’s been huddling with senior Biden officials to announce a “pause” in discussions, a standstill that comes with less than two weeks until the potential “X date” deadline for when the country could default. Talks between Republicans and the White House resumed seven hours later after McCarthy, Graves, and Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), spent Friday afternoon informing factions of the conference about the hang-ups that remained on varying issues.
Appeasing all factions of the conference is a thankless job many Republicans do not want. Though many colleagues and aides believe Graves will deliver a deal that can become law, several privately wonder if McCarthy is positioning Graves as the “fall guy” to blame if negotiations fall apart to appease his far-right flank, which might otherwise move to remove him as speaker.
McCarthy has stressed that Graves is eminently qualified to ensure all views are represented, having been the top Republican listening to all “five families” and taking each faction’s input to build their debt ceiling proposal.
“Congressman Graves, he’s been elected — appointed to our leadership table and he’s been working with all our different groups and he’s really been the individual that helped put people together in crafting the bill,” McCarthy said at a bicameral news conference Wednesday where he touted House and Senate Republican unity on cutting spending.
Graves and key McCarthy officials, including his chief of staff, Dan Meyer, are representing House Republicans in negotiations with two trusted Biden aides: counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti and Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young. Young, who was a Democratic staffer on the House Appropriations Committee for over a decade, coincidentally happens to be from the southern Louisiana district that Graves represents.
Graves “has a clear understanding of where our members are,” McCarthy said. “I didn’t want to put somebody in that room who didn’t understand that.”
In addition to Graves, McHenry — the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, a veteran vote counter and one of McCarthy’s most trusted allies — has been at Graves’s side for some of the talks this week. Both emerged from the Friday evening meeting expressing a lack of confidence that they could reach a deal in principle quickly.
“This wasn’t a negotiation tonight,” said Graves, who declined to be interviewed at length for this article. “This was a discussion about realistic numbers, a realistic path forward, and something that truly changes the…
Read More: How Garret Graves became Republicans’ debt ceiling negotiation frontman