WASHINGTON — The House Republican freshmen who helped win the House majority for their party say they’ll vote yes later today on the GOP plan to raise the debt limit.

More than a dozen of the GOP rookies told reporters that virtually all of the 87-member class is now behind Speaker John Boehner’s plan. Most of the freshmen said they’d only decided to vote yes in the past few days.

Key to their decision, they said, was a commitment to hold a vote on a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. And they bristled at the notion by tea party activists that the bill, and their support for it, is a compromise that amounts to failure.