McCarthy’s struggle to lock down House Speaker roils GOP caucus,

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s struggle to secure enough support within his party win House Speaker in January is putting key decisions on hold and potentially hindering the party’s ability to implement its agenda when it assumes the House majority next year, according to Republican congressional aides.

The California lawmaker needs 218 out of 222 Republicans in the House to elect him Speaker on Jan. 3 if he wants to avoid a messy public floor fight and multiple rounds of voting. As of Tuesday afternoon, McCarthy was still short by at least five votes.

In a secret ballot vote held last month, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., challenged McCarthy for Speaker and won 31 votes to McCarthy’s 188, a small but significant bloc. Biggs said Tuesday that he plans to formally run against McCarthy in January.

Biggs is part of a small band of vocal opponents, who say there are as many as 20 members who are “hard nos,” and would vote against McCarthy in public, on the House floor. McCarthy’s allies say the real number is more like five to eight votes.

Last Wednesday, a group of 13 conservative Republicans that included McCarthy’s loudest detractors met behind closed doors with the House Parliamentarian, the chief arbiter of rules for the chamber, reportedly to learn more about the procedural steps to elect a Speaker.

McCarthy also faces organized opposition from influential conservative outside groups like FreedomWorks and the Conservative Partnership Institute, which have amplified McCarthy’s critics on social media.

This includes the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which writes tax policy. Three Republicans are locked in a very public battle for the chairmanship, a decision that ultimately falls to McCarthy and his lieutenants on the Republican Steering Committee, the party’s internal leadership board.

The steering committee’s vote for Ways and Means chairman was originally expected to take place this week. But two Republican congressional aides, who asked not to be named to speak candidly about internal deliberations, said it had been put on hold — along with votes on two other open chairmans’ seats, on the Budget Committee and the Homeland Security Committee.

It was unclear how long the delay would last, but the aides said it could go on until the Speakership contest is sorted out, which could be January.

A spokesman for McCarthy did not respond to questions from CNBC about the committee vote schedule.

McCarthy himself said essentially the same thing over the weekend, however,…