Defying all odds, the United States somehow managed to make it over three weeks without a functioning Congress. The reason?
The top politicians and policymakers in the House of Representatives fought over the Speaker of the House for a full 22 days. A middle school drama at best, and a disappointing motion picture at worst, representatives appeared to put petty grudges over having a functioning House, leaving us wondering whether legislators care more about preserving democracy or upholding partisanship, Either way, the fight froze any action towards stopping the government shutdown, scheduled to happen on November 17th [1].
The fight’s instigator? Matt Gaetz, who blamed Kevin McCarthy, the former Speaker of the House, for allying with the Democrats. (If you want to learn more about the start of the fight, check out part one of this series!). Soon enough, on October 3rd, McCarthy was ousted as Speaker, leaving the House of Representatives without a leader and opening the floor to a brawl [2].
However, there were some clear rules:
1) Each party had to first elect a party leader, decided through a simple majority. The vote is informal and just meant to garner support for a given nominee.
2) This was followed up with a more formal vote, where all representatives involved in the fight could vote for anyone they wanted (including Trump). A small caveat though — in order to win the vote, a leader has to get an absolute majority, or 217/435 votes [3].
First to enter the ring were Jim Jordan and Steven Scalise, both of whom were considered viable candidates for the Republican party leader. On October 11th, Scalise won the informal nomination, beating out Jordan 113-99 and delivering a punch to his ego [4]. A slight problem though — since Democrats were united behind and all voted for their leader, Hakeem Jeffries, Scalise needed a whopping 217 out of 221 Republican votes to win the formal election for leader, a high bar for the divided party. Jeffries stood no chance of actually winning since Democrats hold the minority in the House, meaning that the fate of the House lay in the hands of Republicans [5, 6].
Readers, this is when it got interesting. Scalise needed to get over 100 votes, mostly from those who had backed Jordan — his colleague turned political enemy [7].
As Congress worked its way through its second week without the ability to function, one thing became clear — while Republicans liked Scalise, he simply wasn’t popular enough to win. Scalise endured blow after blow, with some Republicans walking out of meetings with their Chick-fil-A lunches in hand [7].
Fast forward to October 12, Scalise finally dropped out of the race after failing to garner enough support to succeed [8]. Tensions were high and when asked whether Republicans needed to lock themselves in a room until they deciphered the situation, Republican Rep Dusty Johnson explained that “I would like… to have the power to lock some people in some places, for sure” [9].
With Scalise out of the picture, Jim Jordan entered the race. He was nominated by secret ballot less than a day after Scalise’s loss, receiving 124 votes and surpassing his opponent[10].
On October 17th, he lost his first round of voting but hopes for his success stayed strong, especially considering that McCarthy, the previous speaker, took 15 rounds to win [11] (Though McCarthy was voted out, so he may not serve as the best role model.) Despite Trump’s support, Jordan was 17 votes short, and fared even worse in his second round of voting, losing two more supporters [12].
Despite the struggle, he went in for a third round of voting on October 20th. Unfortunately for him, the third time was not the charm, and he tied for the lowest number of votes for a House majority nominee since 1923 [13]. Consequently, Jordan lost his speakership bid in an internal secret ballot vote. 86 Republicans remained loyal to him whereas the other 112 voted to move on [14].
With the two strongest candidates out of the race, there were nine new potential players, all trying to prove that they were the best to lead. Candidates ranged from Mike Johnson, a former talk show host to Dan Meuser, a former business executive [15].
Enter Tom Emmer, a representative known for his A+ rating from the National Rifle Association and for sleeping in his Congressional office instead of renting an apartment. On October 24th, he won a majority of votes in the Republican conference. Yet, his run was shorter than the meeting held to nominate him, and he dropped out within hours of nomination [16].
At this point, representatives began to get desperate. Rep. Molinaro, the standing chief strategist explained that unless they let go of the quest to find the perfect Republican candidate, they’d never find a speaker. Minutes after Emmer’s withdrawal, he proposed that they hold an immediate vote in conference for a new candidate[17].
That’s when Mike Johnson, former talk-show host, entered the scene, nominated as the party leader in an expedited nomination process. Less than 24 hours later, on October 25th, he was voted in as Speaker of the House, managing to convince lawmakers to switch their votes from the previously voted-out McCarthy to him. “I call him MAGA Mike Johnson” explained Rep. Troy Nehls [17].
For the time being, he is the newest Speaker of the House, finally allowing action to resume. In his first four days, he passed a bill to cut funding for programs that combat climate change and slashed funding for the Energy Department’s energy efficiency action by 42% [18]. On a different note, he believes that a proposed Israel aid bill will pass the House this week [19]. The allocation of additional aid for Ukraine remains uncertain, with Johnson claiming that he wants to place tight restrictions on it. However, he explained that they would not abandon the country [20]. And, as the shutdown deadline looms on the edge, Johnson has promised to pass full-year spending bills, hoping to pass the test McCarthy failed [21].
The rule where a speaker can be removed from the post by just one member who introduces a motion to vacate, followed by a majority-wins vote remains. Yet, Johnson remains confident of his position, saying that he will work openly with everyone to avoid another showdown like this one [22].
It seems more like a reality show mixed with toddlers fighting for candy, and yet this is what American politics has become. On the bright side, any Canadians watching Fox News for fun must be getting the entertainment of their lives.
Citations:
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/06/us/politics/republicans-speaker-vote-jordan-scalise.html
[4] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/steve-scalise-nominated-gop-run-speaker/story?id=103892270
[5]
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/17/us/hakeem-jeffries-house-speaker.html
[9] https://www.axios.com/2023/10/11/gop-speaker-vote-steve-scalise-holdouts
[10] https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/house-speaker-republicans-steve-scalise-jim-jordan/
[12] https://apnews.com/house-speaker-live-updates-day-2
[15] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna121607
[16] https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/minnesota/news/tom-emmer-republican-house-speaker-nominee-what-to-know/
[17],
[20] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/us/ukraine-israel-aid-johnson.html
[22] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/us/ukraine-israel-aid-johnson.html
ella tadros • Jan 3, 2024 at 2:46 am
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