On October 3rd, 2023, Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy was removed in a 216-210 vote. The Speaker of the House of Representatives has the power to appoint members to committees, and control the business on the floor. The vote to remove him came after McCarthy put forth a Continuing Resolution, which is a temporary law to provide funding for the federal government until an Omnibus package can be passed. If it were not passed, the government would go into shutdown, meaning many federal government services would be paused until funding resumed.
“‘An extreme minority’ headed the effort to remove McCarthy from office,” House Representative Ross Tullis said. However, this came as an upset to certain members of the Republican Party, of which McCarthy is a member.
The process for McCarthy’s election in January of this year was an lengthy process. The House needed to elect a Speaker before any business could be done, and the only two votes the House could take at that time were to vote for Speaker, or adjourn. After 4 days of voting, nearly devolving into a fist fight on the House floor, on the 15th round, McCarthy finally was elected, but with heavy concessions.
“The Republicans have a slim majority in the House, which made it hard for McCarthy to govern,” Tullis said. “Politics is all about counting, counting votes … it only took 6 members to stop McCarthy’s policy.”
In the process to elect McCarthy, several historical records were broken. Failing to elect a Speaker on the first ‘ballot,’ or round, has not happened since 1923- and the most ballots since 1859. Never before has a Speaker been removed.
“This is unprecedented territory,” Tullis said in reference to a Speaker being removed. The current temporary Speaker is Patrick McHenry, and the power he has is unclear, as there never has been a Speaker Pro Tempore of the House; Pro Tempore is latin for ‘for the time being’.
McCarthy was removed easily. To be elected, one of the many concessions he made to the “extreme minority” was that any singular member could introduce and put before the House a motion to vacate – which was the motion that removed McCarthy from office. Past rules had put it that half of the Republican Conference, the organization of the House Republicans, had to agree to put forth that vote.
“All of Speaker McCarthy’s failure theater resulted in him teaming up with Democrats to pass a continuing resolution that funds Ukraine, funds Jack Smith’s election interference against President Trump, abandons E-Verify, and does nothing to put the interests of the American people first,” Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz said in a press release last Tuesday.
However, the House cannot pass any funding if they cannot elect a Speaker. The current Continuing Resolution lasts until November 17th. Tullis expressed confidence that a Speaker could be elected before that date.
“Closed door meetings are happening to nominate the next Speaker for the House Republican Conference,” Tullis said.
Former President Trump did consider running for Speaker for a period of time. There is no requirement that the Speaker has to be an elected member of the House of Representatives, however Rule 26 of the Republican Conference requires that elected leadership shall step aside if indicted on a felony in which the punishment could be more than 2 years’ imprisonment. This rule can be amended by a majority of the House Republican conference, however.
“Congressman Sessions did endorse Trump [for President], however the House needs someone that can secure the necessary amount of votes,” Tullis said.
The other candidate, Scalise, is the Majority Leader of the House. Scalise is similar to Jordan in that both objected to the certification of electoral college votes in the 2020 election.
Nobody else has yet entered the Speaker race.
“That’s above my pay grade,” President Biden said from the White House last Wednesday after being asked if he had any advice for the next Speaker. Biden laughed as he left the room. McCarthy’s advice to the next Speaker was, while also laughing, to “Change the rules,” in reference to one House member being able to bring the resolution to vacate to the floor.
