Table Of Content
- What happened when tempers really got out of control on the House floor.
- Speaker pro tempore
- McCarthy, All Carrots and No Sticks, Grinned His Way to the Speakership
- Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
- As McCarthy grasps for the speakership, ‘pork’ has become a focal point.
- House recesses ahead of vote on Israel resolution
- Republicans nominate Mike Johnson for speaker after spurning Emmer.

When Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana wanted to make the case against abortion rights last year during a Capitol Hill committee hearing, he grilled a witness in graphic fashion. Mr. Johnson said Mr. Jordan called him when he was running for office, because “he knew I was a conservative,” contributed money to his campaign and invited him to Washington for a meeting with him and other Freedom Caucus members. In December 2020, Mr. Johnson collected signatures for a legal brief in support of a Texas lawsuit, rooted in baseless claims of widespread election irregularities, that tried to throw out the results in four battleground states won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. We’re seeing a little bit of that here, with his gracious words toward Jeffries, promising to work together and find common ground. About a year ago, after Republicans underperformed expectations in the midterm elections, Mr. Johnson discussed how some of his allies were feeling “dejected and depressed about what’s happened.” But he spoke optimistically about Republicans regaining control of the House, and the ramifications. “This affirms the path that we took,” Representative Bob Good of Virginia, one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, tells reporters.
What happened when tempers really got out of control on the House floor.
Along with being Vermont’s first female member of Congress, Balint is also the first out LGBTQ person elected to Washington from the Green Mountain State. Garcia was officially sworn into office early Saturday morning alongside other House members. It is presently unclear when the ceremonial swearing in, at which Garcia will use the comic, will take place. President Joe Biden spoke with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to congratulate him on winning the gavel in a call Saturday afternoon, according to the White House. "We actually interacted more this week than we have in the last four years. And if anything, that relationship-building is where it was at." More details about the Members of the House of Representatives are available from the Clerk of the House.
Speaker pro tempore
Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, who voted for Majority Leader Steve Scalise on each of the three ballots during House voting last week, said he plans to back Johnson when the lower chamber convenes to elect a new speaker. "Therefore, the Honorable Mike Johnson of the state of Louisiana, having received a majority of the votes cast, is duly elected speaker of the House of Representatives for the 118th Congress," McHenry, the interim speaker, announced after reading the final vote tally. The power of the speaker was greatly augmented during the tenure of the Republican Thomas Brackett Reed (1889–1891, 1895–1899). Reed, however, declared that members who were in the chamber but refused to vote would still count for the purposes of determining a quorum. Through these and other rulings, Reed ensured that the Democrats could not block the Republican agenda.
McCarthy, All Carrots and No Sticks, Grinned His Way to the Speakership
That amendment failed, , with a majority of Republicans voting against the amendment. Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, chairman of the Democratic caucus, rose to nominate Jeffries for speaker and accused Republicans of manufacturing a crisis that has lasted 22 days. Jeffries closed his remarks declaring, "Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. He's doing a great job under difficult circumstances and no amount of election denialism will ever change that reality. Not now. Not ever." He noted that Democrats provided support for legislation to raise the debt ceiling, avoid a government shutdown and provide disaster relief funding.
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Says “he is the reason we are in this majority today,” a nod to his political skills. “From an outside point of view these last few weeks probably look like total chaos, confusion, no end in sight," he said. "But from my perspective, this is one of the greatest experiences of the recent history of our republic." Democrats were scathing in their assessment of Mr. Johnson’s ascent to the speakership. 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.

And tensions have reached a fever pitch at some of the nation's most prestigious universities in recent days as the demonstrations have worn on. “I’m going to a allow an opportunity for every single member of the House to vote their conscience and their will on this,” Johnson told reporters, defending his decision to allow the vote to go forward Saturday. Today, the role of the speaker is influenced especially by changes instituted by Speaker Newt Gingrich, who took the gavel after the 1994 elections. First, they are the most visible and authoritative spokesperson for the majority party in the House. Speakers articulate an agenda and explain legislative action to other Washington officials as well as the public.
House recesses ahead of vote on Israel resolution
He once shared the story with a mostly Democratic audience at a congressional hearing on slavery reparations, and he was surprised to hear boos as he spoke, he later recounted to the Council for National Policy, an assembly of conservative donors known for its strict secrecy. Mr. Johnson was only able to emerge as his party’s nominee for speaker this week after three other G.O.P. nominees before him were unable to rally enough support. 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.
Republicans nominate Mike Johnson for speaker after spurning Emmer.
Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and someone Mr. Johnson has described as a mentor, was the next member to be elected speaker designate in a secret ballot. He had Mr. Trump and the far right in his corner, but ultimately failed to win over more centrist members of his party who steadfastly refused to support him. While Republicans are celebrating finally electing a speaker, across the Capitol, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, chimes in with a reminder of the impending mid-November government shutdown looming unless Congress can pass legislation to keep it funded. “I look forward to meeting with Speaker Johnson soon to discuss the path forward to avoid a government shutdown,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement.
Republicans Nominate Louisiana’s Mike Johnson for House Speaker
Live updates: House speaker candidate forum - CNN
Live updates: House speaker candidate forum.
Posted: Mon, 23 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
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. “You know the allegations about these voting machines, some of them being rigged with this software by Dominion, there’s a lot of merit to that,” Mr. Johnson said. Johnson says that he will bring to the floor “in just a little while” a resolution in support of Israel. “We’re going to show not only Israel but the entire world that the barbarism of Hamas" is "wretched and wrong,” he said. “While there are issues where we differ, we must get back to governing for the good of the country,” Mr. Lawler wrote on social media, posting a photo of himself and Mr. Johnson shaking hands.

The House has been in a state of uncertainty and chaos since Oct. 3, when rebels forced a vote to oust Mr. McCarthy as speaker. Eight Republicans backed that move along with Democrats, who remained united behind their own leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Republicans had cast aside two previous winners of their closed-door nominating process — Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio — before settling on Mr. Emmer.
Also part of the proposal, Republicans familiar with it said, was a commitment by the leader to give the ultraconservative faction approval over a third of the seats on the powerful Rules Committee, which controls what legislation reaches the floor and how it is debated. He also agreed to open government spending bills to a freewheeling debate in which any lawmaker could force votes on proposed changes. Gingrich managed to restore many of the powers of the speakership but clashed repeatedly with Clinton and even with Republican leaders in the Senate. In 1997, in his second Congress as speaker, he barely survived a largely covert challenge from within his own leadership team. And just shy of his fourth anniversary in the job, he was voted out by the full House Republican conference in December 1998. Historically, there have been several controversial elections to the speakership, such as the contest of 1839.
In 1855 and again in 1859, for example, the contest for speaker lasted for two months before the House achieved a result. For example, from 1839 to 1863 there were eleven speakers, only one of whom served for more than one term. James K. Polk is the only speaker of the House who was later elected president of the United States. The county government is primarily composed of the elected five-member Board of Supervisors, other elected offices including the sheriff, district attorney, and assessor, and numerous county departments and entities under the supervision of the chief executive officer. The majority of the county department headquarters are physically located within the city of Los Angeles. Jeffries’ position was made official after the conclusion of a prolonged floor fight that culminated in Republican Kevin McCarthy becoming House speaker.
Furthermore, when no candidate received an Electoral College majority in the 1824 presidential election, causing the president to be elected by the House, Speaker Clay threw his support to John Quincy Adams instead of Andrew Jackson, thereby ensuring Adams' victory. Following Clay's retirement in 1825, the power of the speakership once again began to decline, despite speakership elections becoming increasingly bitter. As the Civil War approached, several sectional factions nominated their own candidates, often making it difficult for any candidate to attain a majority.
After she concluded, Speaker Pelosi then swore in the rest of the lawmakers, including 59 new freshman Members. Members-elect and returning Members were sworn in during the first day of the first session of the 117th Congress. Lisa Desjardins is a correspondent for PBS NewsHour, where she covers news from the U.S.
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