For some reason, Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) entered the Speaker of the House race on Friday against House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.
Jordan emerged with 124 votes. Scott received 81 votes.
Scott has withdrawn and encouraged his fellow Republicans to support Jordan.
The Republicans went home for the weekend on Friday despite having a Speaker nominee. They didn’t take the vote to the floor. They did the same when Majority Leader Steve Scalise won the first round of votes.
Why? The nominee needs 217 Republican votes when all are present.
We know none of the Democrats will cross the aisle to support Jordan.
However, centrist Democrats said they would support a plan to temporarily expand House Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry’s (R-NC) powers.
The government is at a standstill. The House needs a Speaker to function. We all know how I feel about all of this, but I digress.
From The Hill:
“In light of our nation’s pressing issues, a looming government shutdown, and the attacks on our key ally, Israel, we strongly support an immediate vote to expand the Speaker Pro Tempore’s authorities to all for the consideration of a legislative agenda limited to the most pressing issues,” the letter said.Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), Ed Case (D-Hawaii), Susie Lee (D-Nev.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine) suggested Congress expand the abilities of the temporary speaker in 15-day increments until a new speaker is chosen. All four of the authors are leaders of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.They said McHenry should be able to bring before the House proposed legislation that only covers specific areas.
The Democrats said McHenry should have the ability “to introduce foreign aid and emergency funding for Ukraine and Israel, an extension of the current continuing resolution through Jan. 11 to prevent a government shutdown and the consideration of the remaining appropriations bills.”
To avoid “Rules Committee gridlock,” the Democrats suggested McHenry could “introduce suspension bills to be evenly distributed among the majority and minority caucuses.”
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