Congress faces two massive hurdles: the government shutting down in less than 40 days and the need to pick a speaker of the House.
With Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) ousted as speaker of the House on Oct. 3, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) have officially thrown their hats into the ring to succeed him.
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, has not ruled out making a bid for speaker himself.
After the motion to vacate the chair passed 216–210, with eight Republicans joining 208 Democrats voting in favor, Mr. McCarthy announced that he wouldn’t run for speaker again and said he was undecided about whether he would remain in Congress. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) has been appointed as speaker pro tempore until a replacement is voted in.
The House is in recess until Oct. 9. A debate between Mr. Scalise, Mr. Jordan, and Mr. Hern will be televised on Fox News that evening. A candidate forum is scheduled for the next day, with the party casting their choice for speaker on Oct. 11. It is uncertain when the House floor vote for speaker will be.
‘Clock’s Ticking’
Members of Congress acknowledged the need to insert a speaker in order to get all 12 appropriations bills over the finish line. After all, in accordance with House rules, the House floor cannot deal with legislation while there is an appointed speaker pro tempore.
“The House has got to resolve leadership issues ... to actually move forward,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who served in the House between 2011 and 2015, told The Epoch Times. “Clock’s ticking.”
“I think this makes the appropriations process and particularly the next 45 days to the deadline very difficult to meet,” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who served in the House between 1997 and 2011, told The Epoch Times. “We'll see how the House can resolve it, whether they do.”
“[It] also sends a message to our friends and adversaries around the world that we’re less than we got our act together,” he added.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Epoch Times that “obviously” the speaker’s fight will make it difficult to get appropriations bill done “because the time is short and they’re preoccupied with the speaker’s role and uncertainty already on their minds.” Mr. Reed served in the House between 1991 and 1997.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who served in the House between 1981 and 1999, said that the next speaker will need to be able to work with a Democrat-controlled Senate.
“We‘ll need bipartisanship to keep the government open,” he said during his weekly press conference on Oct. 4. “We’ll need it to make life better for the American people for the good of the country.”
“We don’t have a speaker. Eight of our members voted with all the Democrats to oust him,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters.
The Candidates for Speaker
A former wrestling coach, Mr. Jordan told reporters on Oct. 4 that he would fight for the gavel.Mr. Jordan, who has been in Congress since 2007, was nominated during the speaker’s race in January but wasn’t interested in taking the position that is next in line to the presidency after the vice president. He supported Mr. McCarthy’s bid.
Mr. Jordan, whose speaker bid has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, wrote in a letter to colleagues that this is a crossroads in the nation’s history. “Now is the time for our Republican conference to come together to keep our promises to Americans,” he wrote.
“The problems we face are challenging, but they are not insurmountable. We can focus on the changes that improve the country and unite us in offering real solutions,” he continued. ”But no matter what we do, we must do it together as a conference. I respectfully ask for your support for Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
In a letter to colleagues, Mr. Scalise listed bills the House has passed such as on border security and energy, and remarked that the job isn’t finished.
“Now is not the time to slow down,” he wrote. “We laid out an aggressive schedule to complete floor consideration of all 12 appropriations bills to go into Senate negotiations with the strongest hand possible, and we cannot afford to lose any more time achieving that goal.”
Mr. Scalise spoke about his personal life, including when he got shot in 2017 one day before the annual bipartisan Congressional Baseball Game for Charity.
“God already gave me another chance at life. I believe we were all put here for a purpose,” he wrote.
“This next chapter won’t be easy, but I know what it takes to fight and I am prepared for the battles that lie ahead,” wrote Mr. Scalise, who has been in a battle with blood cancer that could cause him to miss time in Congress. ”I humbly ask you for your support on this mission to be your Speaker of the House.”
Meanwhile, the Democrats will nominate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) for speaker, just as they did for the 15 voting rounds that ended with Mr. McCarthy winning the gavel in January after making numerous concessions to the conservative Freedom Caucus that included lowering the threshold for the number of members to trigger a motion to vacate the chair to just one.
