Raúl Labrador to Leave Republican Study Committee, Join House Freedom Caucus

At least one of the founding members of conservative lawmakers’ alternative to the Republican Study Committee plans to relinquish his membership in the four-decades-old group.

In an interview with The Daily Signal today, Rep. Raúl Labrador of Idaho said he wasn’t planning to keep his membership in the Republican Study Committee.

“I think it’s on a case-by-case basis,” Labrador said of Freedom Caucus members keeping their RSC memberships. “But I won’t be keeping my membership.”

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the group’s interim chairman, will keep his RSC membership, he told The Daily Signal today.

RSC members, including Labrador, committed to paying their dues for 2015 in November, when they voted for a new chair.

.@Raul_Labrador plans to leave the RSC. Whether other members of the House Freedom Caucus will do the same is on a “case-by-case basis.”

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The group’s nine founders are: Jordan, Labrador, Justin Amash of Michigan, Ron DeSantis of Florida, John Fleming of Louisiana, Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina and Matt Salmon of Arizona.

The Idaho Republican’s decision to drop his RSC membership comes as conservative lawmakers officially rolled out their alternative to the committee. Called the House Freedom Caucus, the group will push an “agenda of conservative reform, something where we represent the values of the people back home,” Labrador said.

After Rep. Bill Flores of Texas was elected to serve as the RSC’s new chair, plans to start an alternative group were set in motion. Then, details about the House Freedom Caucus—then without a name–were revealed earlier this month.

>>> House Conservatives Band Together to Form New Group to Push Conservative Agenda