Friday will be a pivotal day for Speaker John Boehner. | Niko Duffy/POLITICO For Boehner, 'it's all on the line'

John Boehner faces the biggest test of his speakership Friday morning as he tries to resuscitate a monumental debt-limit bill that was forced from the floor Thursday night because Republican leaders hadn’t lined up enough votes to pass it.

On the line: The outcome of a debt-limit increase that has consumed Washington and New York for months, Boehner’s standing in the Republican Conference, and the balance of power between the House GOP and the Democrats who control the White House and the Senate. Republican leaders hoped to put the bill back on the floor Friday, either in its current form or in a slightly altered state, and some in the GOP worried that Thursday night’s failure to move the bill could disrupt markets.


But Boehner has been in plenty of tough scrapes before, and he tends to stay very cool when others start to panic. He’ll address his troops at 10 a.m. Friday in a closed meeting in the basement of the Capitol with a lot at stake.

“This is the key week of Boehner’s speakership,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) told POLITICO. “It’s all on the line.”

Late Thursday night, GOP leaders were working with rank-and-file lawmakers to find a way to include a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution as part of a package with the debt-limit bill. One option that was discussed was using an arcane “enrollment correction” procedure to wrap them together.

Deep into the night Republican leaders debated whether to bring the bill to the Rules Committee for a revision and then force a vote, which would have led to hours of post-midnight debate and possible confusion among weary members.

Boehner urged other leaders to call it a night and go back at the bill on Friday. Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) wanted to continue to work for more votes, but Boehner “made the tactical decision” to adjourn for the evening and review the situation in the morning, according to a GOP insider.

Whether Boehner can pass his bill remains unclear. The speaker’s aides were privately confident that the Boehner proposal would be taken up and passed on Friday, as were other leadership offices.

Yet Boehner still has his doubters in his own ranks. “This is huge, this is everything for him,” said one well-connected GOP staffer, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “If it doesn’t, then he’s in big trouble.”

Boehner and his top lieutenants worked deep into Thursday night trying to find a just-right solution that would attract 216 votes for the package of $900 billion in new borrowing authority, $917 billion in spending cuts over the next decade, and a process for entitlement and tax reform legislation that could lead to $1.6 trillion or so in deficit reduction and a second increase in the debt limit.

They don’t have available to them the same tools as past Republican leadership teams: There are no earmarks to hand out, nor any to take away, for example.

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), one of the last holdouts and a candidate for the Senate in Arizona, spoke of how “refreshing” it was to see a lobbying effort bereft of the legislative grease that used to secure last-minute votes in the House. He said the vote-building would have “cost $20 billion” in the past.

GOP leaders ran into resistance from a broad array of conservatives, some acting in concert with each other and others acting more as lone wolves. The South Carolina delegation couldn’t be cracked. Led by freshman Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), the five GOP members from that state refused to give over their votes.

Before they broke for the night, Republican leaders negotiated with rank-and-file budget hawks over a possible marriage of the debt-limit bill with an immediate vote on a balanced-budget amendment.

One of the biggest thorns in Boehner’s side has been fellow Ohioan Jim Jordan, the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee. Earlier in the week, Republican lawmakers called for the firing of Jordan aides after it was revealed they had been coordinating an effort to “target” possible GOP “yes” votes with an outside interest group. The Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday that state legislators are working to splinter Jordan’s home turf in redistricting as retribution for his intransigence. By late Thursday night, GOP insiders were accusing Jordan of working his way into leadership meetings with rank-and-file members to disrupt their efforts to flip votes into the “yes” column.

But Boehner’s camp vehemently denied that there was a coordinated effort to use redistricting to punish Jordan.

Senate Democrats, who control the majority in that chamber, remained in a “holding pattern” Friday morning, waiting for Boehner and House Republicans to act. “We wasted two days on this when both sides could have been negotiating. So silly,” said a top Senate Democratic aide.

House Democrats tweaked Boehner for his trouble managing his side of the aisle.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she was “surprised [Boehner] brought it up for debate” without having the votes to pass the bill.

Boehner and his fellow House leaders didn’t go down without a fight Thursday night, engaging in hours of intense meetings with individual Republicans and small groups to try to pile up votes. In the end, they decided to try again in the morning.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, a conservative Texas Republican, emerged from Boehner’s suite of offices Thursday evening — which include Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s space — and said he is a “bloody, beaten-down no.”

Adding even more drama to an already chaotic evening in the Capitol, several members of the South Carolina delegation retreated to an ornate, secluded chapel adjacent to the Capitol Rotunda to pray on the issue.

Asked whether divine inspiration might hit during prayer, Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a freshman from Charleston, replied: “Divine inspiration already happened. I was a ‘lean no,’ and now I’m a ‘no.’”

Dozens of reporters and photographers massed outside the entrance to Boehner’s second-floor suite of offices Thursday evening to watch the procession of rank-and-file lawmakers, before moving down to the first floor where McCarthy’s office served as the nerve center for the remainder of the night.

As hours slipped away and pizza boxes emptied, a handful of other undecideds and Republicans opposed to the bill also flowed into McCarthy’s suite, with Boehner joining the session. Among the holdouts were Flake, Trent Franks, Mo Brooks (Ala.), Scott DesJarlais (Tenn.), Rick Berg (N.D.). and freshman Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.).

For most of the day, from different locations, Boehner met face-to-face with Republicans who didn’t want to hand over their votes.

First to go into Boehner’s office was Tennessee Rep. Chuck Fleischmann. Fleischmann was first grabbed off the floor by Barry Jackson, Boehner’s powerful chief of staff, and that was followed by two quick meetings with the speaker himself. Fleischmann came out in favor of the plan Thursday afternoon.

Florida Rep. Dennis Ross was next into Boehner’s office, and then California Rep. Gary Miller, who was described as “all over the place” by one GOP aide. California Rep. Tom McClintock got some face time with Boehner, as did Florida Rep. Bill Posey.

Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers of Kentucky helped usher members into their meetings with Boehner. While Rogers can’t hand out bridge and road projects like his predecessors, he has a wide network of contacts after three decades in Congress, both in Washington and beyond. This network is being worked hard by Boehner and other top Republicans. Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, now an executive with the bank UBS, was also calling lawmakers.

“We’re calling governors, donors, former senators, anyone we can to talk to these guys,” said a Republican staffer involved in the frantic arm-twisting effort.

After a meeting with Boehner, long-time appropriator Rep. Jack Kingston said he’s leaning yes.

“We need to stay in this fight,” Kingston told POLITICO.

Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, a former member of leadership, met with House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) Wednesday and pushed for a “clean” balanced-budget vote — meaning an amendment to the Constitution that would not require a supermajority vote of Congress to increase taxes.

“I’ll gladly support the Boehner plan,” Pence said in an interview. He told colleagues at a closed-door meeting that they have an “opportunity to make progress on fiscal discipline today, and we have an opportunity [to] make history tomorrow.”