House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is promoting to his Republican colleagues a plan for rapidly moving major spending bills through the lower chamber if he is chosen as speaker of the House next week, but Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) will have something to say about that decision.
Both men are long-serving congressional conservatives who enjoy wide support in the House Republican Conference, but they likely didn’t expect to find themselves in 2023 as the two leading candidates to succeed Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Mr. McCarthy was ousted as speaker on Oct. 3 by eight Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), joined by all 208 Democrats who were present in the chamber for the historic vote. Mr. McCarthy is the first speaker ever ousted under a motion to vacate.
The now-former speaker’s most recent significant legislative achievement was securing passage on Sept. 30 of a continuing resolution (CR) that extends federal spending at current levels and keeps the government open for 45 days.
The CR was approved by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden just a few hours before the government would have had to shut down for lack of an approved 2024 budget.
The House has approved and sent to the Senate four of the 12 major spending bills, which account for three-fourths of the government’s discretionary spending.
But the Senate has yet to take up any of the four, and the House still must pass the remaining measures and get them to the upper chamber before Nov. 14 to once again avoid a government shutdown.
That legal and fiscal reality provides the political framing for the race to succeed Mr. McCarthy.
Interviews with multiple House Republicans, all speaking on background, suggest at this point that if there is a favorite to succeed Mr. McCarthy in what is likely to be a one-week campaign, it’s Mr. Jordan.
“I think you are voting for a package when we vote for speaker, because we are in this 45-day window, and whoever we elect, the first thing you’ve got to do is deal with the appropriations, so when you vote, you are voting for a speaker and for an appropriations plan,” a Republican House member told The Epoch Times.
“The candidates are going to have to have a strong plan that the conference can get behind.”
“I think he’s got a plan to get us to the table and get all the bills done without a threat of a shutdown,” the representative said, referring to Mr. Jordan.
A spokesman for Mr. Jordan didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment on the plan.
Mr. Scalise commands respect among colleagues, stemming from his work under Mr. McCarthy as House majority leader and from his surviving a mass shooting on June 14, 2017, at a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, where he and 23 Republican colleagues were practicing for the annual congressional baseball game.
He was shot by left-wing political activist James Hodgkinson, a volunteer in Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign. The bullet entered Mr. Scalise’s hip, then tore through his pelvic area, severely damaging bones and internal organs. The massive bleeding that followed required multiple transfusions when he arrived in critical condition at a local hospital.
Several surgeries were required to repair the damage, and Mr. Scalise was later placed in intensive care as a result of an infection after those operations.
He recovered and returned to the House floor on Sept. 27, 2017, where he was greeted by a standing ovation from every member of the House.
As House majority leader, Mr. Scalise normally would be considered most likely to succeed Mr. McCarthy, but another serious health problem stands in the way.
On Aug. 29, the Louisiana Republican announced that he has multiple myeloma, which he described “as a very treatable blood cancer,” and is undergoing treatment.
“But it was never a question for me: I love this country, and I believe we were sent here to come together and solve the immense challenges we face. As I face new challenges, I feel even more strongly about that today.”
Even so, every Republican member interviewed for this article expressed respect for Mr. Scalise but also grave doubts that he would be up to the physical demands of the speakership.
Among the chief duties of the speaker is fundraising for Republican congressional candidates, a task at which Mr. McCarthy excelled despite having to spend countless hours flying to events across the country.
“He’s going to have trouble getting out of bed, I don’t care how mild the illness is,” one of the members said.
Mr. Scalise heads what is viewed as a ticket that would have Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the current majority whip, move up to majority leader and be succeeded in the head-counting position by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.).
Mr. Emmer was initially seen as a potential speaker candidate, but his support of same-sex marriage appears to have prompted the decision to seek the second-in-line leadership slot instead.
Mr. Jordan, a former college wrestling champion and coach, is known as a conservative fighter—he co-founded the House Freedom Caucus—who, as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has proven to be an adept manager of a panel that is stocked with highly talented, sometimes difficult personalities.
One of Mr. Jordan’s most enthusiastic backers told The Epoch Times: “This all heads toward the presidential election. If we lose in 2024, we lose the country. It’s a messy war, and Jordan is as good as it comes.”
Another supporter said that Mr. Jordan “changes the batting order” for judiciary committee hearings to enable members with particular expertise or skills to cross-examine witnesses, regardless of seniority.
“Remember, he was a coach and those skills have been very useful in running the committee,” the supporter said.
Three other members have been mentioned in the mainstream media as potential speaker candidates, but each is unlikely to win the position, according to those interviewed.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) could be nominated when the Republican conference meets. According to one member who spoke to The Epoch Times, Mr. Donalds is a “rising star” who could be nominated “just to make things interesting.”
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) was praised for his cross-examination of Attorney General Merrick Garland during a Sept. 20 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee but is thought to be more likely to move up in that committee.
Finally, Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) is chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest traditional conservative caucus in Congress. A successful businessman, Mr. Hern is in his fifth year in the House.
