House Freedom Caucus HFC

The House Freedom Caucus was founded in January 2015 by nine conservative Republicans, including Jim Jordan of Ohio, its first chair, Mark Meadows, Raul Labrador, Justin Amash, Mick Mulvaney, and Ron DeSantis. Its founders believed the larger Republican Study Committee had become too close to leadership. Membership is by invitation, the group does not publish an official roster, and estimates have ranged from about thirty to more than forty members.

The caucus's power comes from bloc voting. If a supermajority of members agrees on a position, all members are expected to vote together, and in a narrow House majority that can sink a rule, a bill, or a leadership candidate without minority support. The caucus pushes for lower spending, tighter conditions in debt-limit and appropriations deals, and procedural changes that weaken leadership control, such as restoring the ability of a single member to force a vote to remove the Speaker.

Its members played central roles in the 2015 resignation of Speaker John Boehner, the fifteen ballots needed to elect Kevin McCarthy Speaker in January 2023, and his removal that October. Supporters credit it with holding leadership accountable to conservative voters, while critics within and outside the party argue its tactics have produced gridlock and shutdowns. In the 119th Congress it is chaired by Representative Andy Harris of Maryland.