SALT LAKE CITY — On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives adjourned after a 12th round of voting failed to yield enough votes for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, or any of McCarthy’s challengers, to take the House speakership.

But as CNN reported, McCarthy flipped 15 votes Friday afternoon.

The House is scheduled to resume voting around 8 p.m. on Friday, and Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, said he sees a light at the end of the tunnel.

Curtis said lack of trust was hurting McCarthy’s bid for the speaker

On Friday afternoon he spoke with KSL NewsRadio’s Inside Sources host Boyd Matheson from Washington.

“A lot of it has come down to the group of 20, not trusting Kevin, that he would actually work on the things that were important to them,” Curtis said.

“And I think one of the things that happened last night (Thursday night) was enough assurances were put forward, that they started to feel comfortable.”

Curtis pointed out that some of the members of 20 Republican holdouts began their comments on Friday by mentioning good-faith negotiations and conversations.

He said that as a result of these negotiations, Americans can expect to see more single-issue bills and a resolution to create a balanced budget in ten years. 

Negotiation led to a budget provision that Curtis presented

There’s a provision that Curtis said he’s particularly proud of, which he suggested, that deals with the budget.

“If we can’t agree to a budget … instead of going into shutdown which I know we all hate … it would simply be the default to go back to last year’s budget.”

There’s a bright side to the debate that’s taken place this week in front of the American people, Curtis said, and it’s that a debate took place in front of the American people. Another plus, he said, is that all of the Representatives were taking part.

“You know the way it works back here, people go to the floor, and they give these flowery speeches and nobody’s there, nobody’s listening so it’s not a true debate,” Curtis said.

“Well, we had a debate in front of the American people for several days. And it delayed the speakership, but maybe it’s not all bad.”

Related reading:

• Rep. Curtis says Rep. McCarthy has experience to lead as House Speaker
• Voting for house speaker, Utah representative weighs in
• Republican Party can’t decide on House Speaker. What does this mean?
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