GOP lawmaker says House 'better off' without 'volatile' members

Republican Rep. Don Bacon (Neb.), who won a hotly contested general election race last month, said the House GOP will be “better off” without “volatile” lawmakers in the next Congress. 

Bacon did not mention the members he was referring to in comments about the House's passage last week of a measure to keep the government funded.

The Nebraska Republican said his party “did the right thing” by helping to pass the spending bill to keep the government funded, but he added that “we sure made it painful to get there” as two previous versions of the legislation sunk last week after heavy pressure from some Republican lawmakers, President-elect Trump and his allies on the outside. 

Bacon argued during his Monday interview on NewsNation that the GOP conference in the lower chamber will be “more cohesive” next year since some of the “volatile” members will be gone. 

“And I do think our House Republicans will be more cohesive than the last Congress, because we have three of the most volatile people will not be in it this Congress. And I won't mention who those names are, but you probably know who they are,” Bacon said.

Several rabble-rousers who were a thorn in the leadership’s side are leaving the House, including Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) and Bob Good (R-Va.). Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who helped spearhead the end of former Rep. Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) Speakership, resigned in mid-November. 

“But so we're gonna be a little better off, but we only gonna have a one-seat majority, and we need to have these special elections as soon as we can, to get back to 220, to 215, majority,” Bacon said. 

The Nebraska Republican was referring to the thin majority the House GOP will enjoy in the next Congress. With Gaetz's departure, Republicans will at first have a 219-215 margin. But Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) have been nominated for positions in the Trump administration, which will cut into the majority further until the GOP has a chance to win back the seats in special elections.

Because of the slim majorities, Bacon said lawmakers in both chambers will need a “bipartisan spirit” to ensure that legislation has the best chance of passing. 

“We have a bear majorities in both the House and the Senate, and that's just a fact of life,” he told NewsNation anchor Chris Stirewalt. “The Senate, you have to get 60 votes. We only have a 53-47 seat majority there. So I think we've still got to govern from the center to the right, and not just from the far right, because the fact is, you're not going to get those votes [in] the House or Senate if you try to govern that way.” 

NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group which also owns The Hill.