Name: 5 things to watch as the House moves on after vote to remove McCarthy
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5 things to watch as the House moves on after vote to remove McCarthy

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34568c8bae0bc3439f9c06a73eea0ec3bbce854bab60ebfa8e30d47c71d2cfcc6829c17a90be664cby AUSTIN DENEAN | The National DeskThu, October 5th 2023, 9:35 PM UTC7VIEW ALL PHOTOSThe name of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., remains on the sign at the entrance of the offices of the Speaker of the House on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023 in Washington, one day after he was ousted from the Speaker's position. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)The House is frozen with deadlines for several key funding bills coming up and a temporary speaker in place while Republicans try to figure out who will be the next speaker following the historic vote to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy.McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted earlier this week after a motion to vacate the speaker was introduced by Florida Republican Matt Gaetz. Eight Republicans voted to remove McCarthy from the speakership along with the entire Democratic caucus in a historic and unprecedented moment that has lawmakers wondering what comes next as they navigate the unchartered territory.Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., is the temporary leader of the House as speaker pro tempore until the House decides on a new speaker. Democrats are likely to nominate and vote for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., like they did at the beginning of this Congress, which means any Republican would need to secure 218 votes unless some members voted “present” and lowered the threshold.There is a lot for the House to decide and a limited timeframe to do so with multiple deadlines counting down.A look at the state of the House:WHY WAS McCARTHY OUSTED?Eight Republicans, led by Gaetz, had been skeptical of his leadership since taking the majority and grievances piled up over time and finally culminated in the vote to remove him after he decided to work with Democrats to keep the government open instead of passing a party-line bill.“Kevin McCarthy built the yellow brick road of working with Democrats,” Gaetz said Thursday morning. “He did so initially on the debt limit deal that abolished the debt limit. Kevin McCarthy valeted into law the debt limit provision that allows Joe Biden to accrue as much debt as he wants until January of 2025. Kevin McCarthy, then again used Democrats to pass a continuing resolution.”McCarthy had the support of a significant majority of the Republicans in the House, but a unified vote from Democrats along with the eight GOP members was enough to remove him from office.Since the vote, some Democrats have said they lost trust in McCarthy after an appearance on a Sunday news show where he blamed them for a potential shutdown and did little to try to shore up any support among them.ANOTHER STOPGAP COULD BE REQUIRED TO AVOID SHUTDOWNLawmakers have just weeks to pass the 12 appropriations bills to fund the government through both chambers and have them signed by President Joe Biden.The House was not close to finding a deal that could pass without Democratic support prior to last weekend’s deadline to avoid a shutdown, which resulted in the continuing resolution that ultimately resulted in McCarthy being removed as speaker.After the vote, representatives were sent home until Tuesday while Republicans tried to figure out who the next speaker would be. The time away from Washington and the process to elect a new speaker will cost valuable and limited time in session and on the floor that will further limit the amount of time they have to cut a deal.Some House Republicans have wanted even steeper spending cuts than what the White House and Senate agreed to during the debt limit negotiations, which will face stiff opposition. A new speaker will face the same dynamics as McCarthy, who was unable to get enough GOP support for bills to fund the government, even plans that included steep cuts that were all but certain to fail in the Senate.The loss of a week or more to elevate a new speaker could require another continuing resolution come mid-November to buy enough time to get a deal in place.‘MOTION TO VACATE’ MAY GET REFORMMultiple lawmakers have said the rule allowing one member of Congress to call for a vote to remove the speaker will need to be changed for the House to operate functionally moving forward.McCarthy had agreed to lower the threshold to force a vote on a motion to vacate from five to one during the marathon 15-round election that gave him the gavel at the beginning of the year as part of his bid to appeal to hardline members of his conference that were skeptical of his leadership.But after his ouster multiple Republicans have said they don’t want to see a mutiny happen again.Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., said his vote will cost a reform to the rule.“I’m not supporting ANYONE for Speaker until there is a commitment to reform the Motion to Vacate,” Gimenez wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The coup against Speaker McCarthy was DESPICABLE &amp; must never happen again. No one can govern effectively while being threatened by fringe hostage lawmakers.”Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., also said his vote requires changing the rule to avoid more chaos.“Our next Speaker needs to look at reforming the motion to vacate, otherwise it's the same clowncar with a different driver,” he said on X.The Main Street Caucus, a group made of more than five dozen Republican lawmakers, said allowing one member to force a vote to remove the speaker would “keep a chokehold on the chamber.”“The ability for one person to vacate the Speaker of the House will keep a chokehold on this body through 2024,” the group said in a statement Wednesday morning. “Personal politics should never again be used to trump the will of 96 percent of House conservatives. Any candidate for Speaker must explain to us how what happened on Tuesday will never happen again.”It's unclear if Democrats would support rule changes to avoid another mutiny against the speaker, so Republicans may need to shore up enough votes to pass the rules without help from across the aisle. That could be a challenge with a five-seat majority and several members who support the rule.GAETZ FACING RETRIBUTION FROM GOP COLLEAGUESMultiple GOP lawmakers have voiced fury with Gaetz for putting the House into a chaotic situation and leading the effort to get McCarthy voted out of his job.A handful have questioned whether Gaetz should be removed from the Republican conference entirely, and McCarthy said the eight GOP members who voted to remove him were not standing up for conservative priorities and were seeking chaos.“They are not conservatives and they do not have the right to have the title,” he said.Gaetz claims his push to get McCarthy out of the speakership was for the good of the public.“I know there's a lot of raw emotion with some of my Republican colleagues. I got a few stern looks on the floor,” he said. “But I'm a pretty tough guy, and I know who I work for, and it's not the people in Washington, D.C. It's the people in Florida who elected me and they are overwhelmingly in support of what I've done to change the United States Congress for the better.”Removing Gaetz from the conference would be a considerable task requiring a two-thirds majority, but it highlights the frustration the party has with him over this week’s events.WHO IS TRYING TO REPLACE McCARTHY?Two Republicans have said they will seek the speakership, Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Steve Scalise of Louisiana.Scalise, the House Majority Leader and McCarthy’s No. 2, launched his bid to become speaker on Wednesday and called for the conference to come together for the good of the public.“We must mend the deep wounds that exist within our conference and focus on our objectives so we can get back to work for the millions of people who are counting on us,” Scalise wrote in a letter to his colleagues.Scalise was the victim of a politically-motivated shooting in 2017 during a congressional baseball practice and recently announced he was undergoing treatment for blood cancer that he said was “very treatable.”He has already received a handful of public endorsements from some of the party’s members.Jordan, a conservative firebrand who co-founded the Freedom Caucus and is now chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee, is also seeking the post. He has risen within leadership since being elected to Congress in 2016 and is an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump.“We are at a critical crossroad in our nation's history,” he wrote in a letter to GOP members. "Now is the time for our Republican conference to come together to keep our promises to Americans.”Gaetz, who started the effort to remove McCarthy, said either of them would be a “marked improvement” over the now-former speaker. He also said he thought either could get the conservative bills he is advocating for passed and could get the votes necessary to win the job.“My suspicion is Wednesday of next week, we will have a vote in the conference. And by the end of next week, we will have a new, better, reinvigorated House speaker and it's going to be a great thing for the country,” Gaetz said.Loading ...

34568c8bae0bc3439f9c06a73eea0ec3bbce854bab60ebfa8e30d47c71d2cfcc6829c17a90be664cby AUSTIN DENEAN | The National DeskThu, October 5th 2023, 9:35 PM UTC7VIEW ALL PHOTOSThe name of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., remains on the sign at the entrance of the offices of the Speaker of the House on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023 in Washington, one day after he was ousted from the Speaker's position. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)The House is frozen with deadlines for several key funding bills coming up and a temporary speaker in place while Republicans try to figure out who will be the next...

5 things to watch as the House moves on after vote to remove McCarthy

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