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Table Of Content

• How often do speaker elections take place other than in January?
• Does the House of Representatives have a minority leader?
• The Humbling of Marjorie Taylor Greene
• Republicans nominate Mike Johnson for speaker after spurning Emmer.
• House to send articles of impeachment against Mayorkas to the Senate
• Latest California
• Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives

He presented colleagues with arguments they could use to oppose the will of the voters without embracing conspiracy theories and the lies of widespread fraud pushed by Mr. Trump. Mr. Johnson instead faulted the way some states had changed voting procedures during the pandemic, saying it was unconstitutional. No credible evidence has ever emerged to support the conspiracy theories about Dominion and another voting machine firm having helped to ensure Mr. Trump’s defeat.

How often do speaker elections take place other than in January?

This is one reason California Republican Kevin McCarthy, the current GOP majority leader, is the frontrunner to replace House Speaker Pelosi. The roles of the parties reversed in 1994 when, after spending forty years in the minority, the Republicans regained control of the House with the "Contract with America", an idea spearheaded by Minority Whip Newt Gingrich. Speaker Gingrich would regularly clash with Democratic President Bill Clinton, leading to the United States federal government shutdown of 1995 and 1996, in which Clinton was largely seen to have prevailed. Gingrich's hold on the leadership was weakened significantly by that and several other controversies, and he faced a caucus revolt in 1997. After the Republicans lost House seats in 1998 (although retaining a majority) he did not stand for a third term as speaker. His successor, Dennis Hastert, had been chosen as a compromise candidate since the other Republicans in the leadership were more controversial.

Does the House of Representatives have a minority leader?

After Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, who ending up holding the deciding vote, said “present,” most seated at the bar fell quiet. A bartender switched the channel from basketball to C-SPAN about 10 minutes before the vote was set to start, but it was only when the session was called to order that the rowdy crowd turned its attention fully to the screens, hooting and clapping. Mr. Trump’s call may have played a role in Mr. Gaetz opting to continue with another round of balloting, along with a small group of other members who had been opposing McCarthy’s candidacy. The dramatic moment was captured on C-SPAN’s video cameras, which, lacking the typical restraints placed upon them in a House with a speaker, were free to show whatever moments from the floor its operators deemed newsworthy. So much of what House Republicans want to do legislatively will go nowhere in the Democratic Senate, but the Republican majority will be able to conduct the investigations it has promised and McCarthy is emphasizing that point.

The Humbling of Marjorie Taylor Greene

Mr. Johnson came to Congress in 2017 with support from the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, though he has never joined the group. “The slates of electors were produced by a clearly unconstitutional process, period,” he said. Over a year later, on “Truth Be Told,” the Christian podcast he hosts with his wife, Kelly, Mr. Johnson continued to argue that he and his colleagues had been right to object to the election results.

He soon eclipsed the party's leader, Robert Michel, who was nearing retirement. Additionally, since many speakers held office for multiple terms, often with non-consecutive periods, the time listed for each speaker represents the total length of their time as speaker. It is important to note that the period between the adjournment of one Congress and the convening of the next Congress is not included in the calculations.

House to send articles of impeachment against Mayorkas to the Senate

Representative Pete Aguilar of California, the Democratic conference chairman, said that the speaker fight had devolved into a contest over “who can appease Donald Trump.” At that line, a handful of hard-right Republicans stood and applauded. The elevation of Mr. Johnson, 51, an architect of the effort to overturn the 2020 election and a religious conservative opposed to abortion rights, homosexuality and gay marriage, further cemented the Republican Party’s lurch to the right. It came after a historic fight that began when the hard right ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Oct. 3, and raged on as the divided House G.O.P. nominated and then quickly discarded three other candidates to succeed him. The far-right GOP Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas announced this week that he would nominate Trump to be speaker.

Johnson temporarily dodges ouster vote as House passes foreign aid - POLITICO

Johnson temporarily dodges ouster vote as House passes foreign aid.

Posted: Sat, 20 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Representative Victoria Spartz of Indiana, who had voted “present” in previous ballots, also voted for Mr. McCarthy in the 12th vote. Evidence cited in the committee’s report was made public over the weekend, but Republicans are seeking to hold back hundreds of thousands of pages of underlying evidence that was scheduled to go into storage for up to 50 years. If the current Speaker stays in office until a new Speaker is elected, then the new Speaker (not currently a Representative) can be elected and enter the Hall. Of course, Gen. Powell is no longer Secretary of State, so this no longer applies. Instead, as a private person, the question is, "Does the Speaker need to be an elected member in his own right?" Traditionally, of course, it would be unprecedented.

What names have been floated to be the new House speaker?

The speaker is responsible for ensuring that the House passes legislation supported by the majority party. In pursuing this goal, the speaker may use their influence over the Rules committee, which is in charge of the business of the House. As the office has developed historically, however, it has taken on a clearly partisan cast, very different from the speakership of most Westminster-style legislatures, such as the speaker of the United Kingdom's House of Commons, which is meant to be scrupulously non-partisan.

But once Jan. 3 comes along, members are not obligated to vote for the party’s chosen candidate. In past years, President Biden, former President Trump and even a senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, have received votes for House speaker. By the 1970s, committees had gained such control over legislative outcomes that widespread reforms were adopted, which shifted power back to the speaker. Under Article IX of the Articles of Confederation (1781), the Congress of the United States had the power "to appoint one of their number to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years." Both bills — especially the duplex bill — triggered an intense legislative fight, most of it under the news media radar because of attention given to the Newsom recall election and pandemic.

For instance, Nathaniel Macon served as speaker during both the 8th and 9th Congresses, but the eight-month gap between the two Congresses is not included in his service duration. The exact dates of service for each individual speaker is shown in the Term of service column of the above table. In a secret-ballot vote on Tuesday night, Mr. Johnson got 128 votes, with 44 Republicans voting for nominees not on the ballot, including 43 for Mr. McCarthy, whom many view as unfairly ousted. Still, in a separate vote afterward, only a few Republicans indicated they would not back Mr. Johnson on the floor, while about 20 Republicans were absent. A social conservative, Mr. Johnson is a lawyer and the former chairman of the Republican Study Committee.

Only hours later, Mr. Emmer told Republicans in a closed-door meeting that he was dropping his bid, according to a person familiar with his decision who divulged the private discussion on the condition of anonymity. In the years before he arrived in Congress in 2017, Mr. Johnson worked as an attorney and spokesman for the anti-abortion-rights and anti-gay group Alliance Defense Fund — now called the Alliance Defending Freedom. During that time, he expressed some of his hard-line views in editorials in the local newspaper in his hometown of Shreveport, La. In Congress, Mr. Johnson has voted for a national abortion ban and co-sponsored a 20-week abortion ban, earning him an A-plus rating from the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

The chamber cannot organize until it has a speaker since that person effectively serves as the House's presiding officer and the institution's administrative head. The House can elect a new speaker at any time if the person occupying that role dies, resigns or is removed from office. To win the gavel, a candidate needs support from a majority of the House members present, meaning the eventual speaker will need 217 votes if every one of the current members votes and does so for a candidate by name.