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Category: Pure Politics

Well, Now What?

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Now that Kevin McCarthy of California has been removed as Speaker, the House of Representatives is collectively asking this morning, “Well, now what?”  

After the final vote on the motion to vacate the Speakership passed 216 to 210, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina took over the position of Speaker Pro Tem and recessed the House.  McHenry was named to that role by McCarthy back in January when he became Speaker, in order to ensure that the House remained functional in case of a disaster.

A number of questions immediately arose after yesterday’s vote, such as:

  • Would McCarthy run again?  If so, could he win?
  • Who else would run for Speaker?  
  • Who are the front-runners?
  • When would the House vote?
  • Could anyone get 218 votes from the current House Republican conference?

The House Republicans met yesterday afternoon/evening to discuss these and other issues.  Things do not appear to be any clearer this morning.

McCarthy announced that he would not seek to reclaim the position.  There were no names officially offered as a replacement during the meeting. 

The House has recessed until next Tuesday, meaning no legislative activity can take place until that evening at the earliest.  The chamber had been scheduled to take up several appropriations bills this week.

The recess was called in order for the House Republicans to set out a path forward, including providing time for those interested in pursuing the Speaker position to connect with their colleagues to gauge the level of support.

The House is truly navigating through uncharted territory at this point.

Read more about the developments here, here, and here. 

Sitting Speaker Removed During Session for First Time

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The House of Representatives is, as of this afternoon, now navigating through truly uncharted territory as Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was removed from the Speakership by a vote of 216 to 210.  After a procedural vote to prevent the motion to remove McCarthy was defeated, in the end, seven other Republicans voted with Matt Gaetz and all Democrats to remove him from the Speakership.

The House must now regroup and pick a new Speaker.  Whether there is a logical successor remains to be seen.  Whether McCarthy runs to reclaim the spot is also unknown.  These are just two of the myriad questions about where we go from here.

Read more about the historic developments here, here, and here. 

CR Leads to Vote on Speaker Removal

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So… as the House made a last-minute move to avoid a government shutdown over the weekend, it has led to a vote scheduled for this afternoon that could see the House Speaker removed, in essence, by members of his own party.

Hard-right member Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who has made it clear since January– when it took 15 rounds of voting to elect Kevin McCarthy of California as Speaker– that he has been unhappy with McCarthy, used as his final justification the continuing resolution and the supposed negotiations around it to file a motion to remove the Speaker late yesterday.  The House is scheduled vote on that motion this afternoon.  Gaetz has been the most public and vociferous of a group of hard-core right-wing members of the House Republican conference that has sought concessions from the Speaker since the beginning of this Congress.  Apparently, at least for him, the CR was the last straw.

A House Speaker has never been removed during a session and numerous questions abound about how things might unfold:

  • Will a “motion to table” the vote– or kill the motion– before there is an actual vote on the motion succeed?
  • If there is an actual floor vote, how many Republicans will join Gaetz in voting to remove McCarthy?
  • It’s clear that the vast majority of the Republican conference supports McCarthy.  Will Democrats help McCarthy in anyway to stay in power?
  • Who would replace McCarthy?

These are only a handful of questions that will be answered relatively shortly.

Read more about the situation here, here, and here.

 

Shutdown Averted… For Now?

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Not quite at the literal 11th hour– but close to it– the federal government managed to avoid having to shut itself down last Saturday evening over the lack of funds to continue operating.  The dreaded government shutdown– something that most of Washington had been expecting for the past two weeks– was prevented at the end as a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded through November 17 was adopted in both chambers on bipartisan votes and signed into law at the last minute.

There was plenty of drama building up to the last-minute, temporary, funding extension.  After the House Republican leadership finally acknowledged early Saturday that it did not have the votes within its conference to pass a bill with only Republican votes due to the recalcitrance of some of the the hard-right members, the Speaker sought to bring to the floor a CR that was relatively “clean.”  It extended government funding at this year’s current levels through November 17, extended the authority of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Flood Insurance Program, and included $16 billion in emergency disaster relief.  It did not include, something that would prove to be an issue in the Senate later that day, additional funding for efforts in Ukraine.  The package that was being brought to the floor caught the House Democrats by surprise.

Ultimately, after a review of the package to ensure that there were no “poison pills” for their party in the legislation, all but one House Democrat joined a majority of the House Republicans in approving the measure.  Ninety House Republicans voted against the bill.

When the Senate took up the House-passed the bill shortly afterwards, progress was delayed because of the lack of additional funding for Ukraine.  After assurances from the Senate leadership that efforts would be made on this front, the hold on the legislation from Michael Bennet (D-CO) was released and the chamber adopted it 88 to 9.  It was signed into law by President Biden before the end of the evening.

The extension of government funding through November 17 buys, in theory, additional time for the lawmakers to actually finish additional parts of the annual appropriations process.  None of the 12 annual appropriations bills for FY2024 has been signed into law yet.

All of these activities related to the CR has ultimately led to another set of dramatic activities currently playing out in the House this week, which we discuss in the next post.

 

What Will They Come Up With Next?

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After turning back approximately a dozen amendments during the floor debate last night, the Senate adopted by a 63 to 36 vote the debt limit bill, clearing it for the President’s signature later today.  The Treasury Department had been warning that the nation would lose its ability to pay all of its bills next Monday.  The House cleared the bill earlier this week.  

While the fight over the debt limit has become much more partisan and political recently, this year’s fight represents the closest the nation has come to actually defaulting on its debts.