The U.S. House is without a leader, leaving it essentially paralyzed.
The tumult has thrown Congress into chaos and shined a bright light on deep-seated dysfunction among House Republicans ahead of urgent work and rapidly approaching deadlines to pass spending bills to avert a government shutdown and authorize and keep U.S. military aid flowing to Ukraine.
No clear front-runner has emerged in the race to become the next Speaker of the House. GOP Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, have publicly thrown their hat in the ring in the race to lead the chamber.
Iowa Republican U.S. House Reps. Ashley Hinson, of Marion, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, of Ottumwa, on Thursday publicly declared their support for Scalise as the next House Speaker.
Hinson, speaking to reporters Thursday morning during a visit to Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, said she had spoken with both Scalise and Jordan in the last 24 hours, but has “a little bit more deliberating that I want to do before I announce my decision publicly.”
“That said I think it is imperative that we make that decision and get that decided next week as a caucus,” Hinson said. “We have a lot to do in the coming weeks before that deadline (to avert a government shutdown after government funding runs out) on Nov. 17. In my mind, it’s imperative we get that decided so we can move forward (and) we can heal as a conference, but we can also do the work that people sent us there to do. We need to get back to work for the American people.”
Roughly an hour later, Hinson’s office sent out a statement in support of Scalise.
“We need a Speaker who will unite our historically thin majority so we can put the drama behind us and help deliver the most conservative legislation possible as we are faced with several looming and important deadlines,” Hinson said in the statement.
She called Scalise “a principled conservative" who ”has overcome adversity far beyond the infighting in our Conference right now.“
Scalise in August announced he had been diagnosed with a treatable form of blood cancer known as multiple myeloma and was undergoing treatment.
The Louisiana Republican was among several people wounded in 2017 when a rifle-wielding attacker fired on lawmakers on a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. Scalise was shot in the hip and endured lengthy hospitalizations, multiple surgeries and painful rehabilitation.
“He has the grit, strength, and faith to lead us and deliver for the American people,” Hinson said. "Steve shared with me his forward-looking vision to unite Republicans, bring conservative spending bills to the floor, and advance the priorities of Iowans. He loves our country, understands our conference, and is uniquely positioned to protect and grow our Republican majority.”
Miller-Meeks posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Thursday that under Scalise’s leadership House Republicans “will unite and continue to the great work for the American people.”
Fellow Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, of Bondurant, said he’s waiting to hear from all candidates running for the speakership before making a decision.
“As the last few weeks have again highlighted, the status quo in D.C. is critically broken, and I don’t want to rush the decision to select the right person to lead the fight to fix it,” Nunn said in a statement to The Gazette. “I’m waiting to make a decision until we have the opportunity to hear from everybody running about their vision to take on the D.C. bureaucracy, balance the budget, secure the border, and support the critical programs — like Medicare and Social Security — that Iowans rely on every day.”
A representative for Iowa U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon about the race for House Speaker.
Iowa's four Republican U.S. representatives voted to support keeping McCarthy in his leadership role.
The House is expected to convene next week to elect a new speaker. Hinson told reporters Thursday House Republicans will hold a “candidate forum” next week, ideally Tuesday.
Eight hard-line Republicans and House Democrats voted to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a historic 216-210 vote Tuesday.
North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry, who chairs the Financial Services Committee, was named speaker pro tempore, an interim role with limited authority. Members must elect a new speaker before they can resume their legislative agenda.
McCarthy announced earlier this week that he would not run for speaker again, setting off a scramble to fill the leadership vacuum with no obvious favorite. Getting support from the majority of the chamber — a task which took McCarthy 15 rounds of voting over four days in January — won’t be easy.
Hinson said she’s hopeful House Republicans can elect a new speaker with one vote on the floor.
“I certainly hope it won’t take 15 ballots,” she said, “but I will be in for as many ballots as it takes for the candidate that I choose.”
Hinson told reporters the House needs to revisit its rules and mechanisms for ousting a speaker.
In order to appease the hard-line House Freedom Caucus and secure the speakership, one of the major concession McCarthy made was to reinstate a procedural mechanism called the motion to vacate the chair, which allows a single member to call a vote to oust the Speaker.
“If one member has this much power over the entire institution, I think that’s a big problem,” Hinson said. “So I’m hopeful we can take a look at that and make sure that this kind of breakdown in process doesn’t happen again, because I can certainly tell you Matt Gaetz isn’t the one suffering right now. It’s the people of this district who are worried about the uncertain times ahead for Congress.”
The Florida Republican congressman successfully pushed to oust McCarthy as speaker over clashes on aid to Ukraine and federal spending. Gaetz has criticized the debt deal McCarthy made with President Joe Biden and the vote to prevent a government shutdown, which Gaetz and other House Republicans opposed as they demanded steeper spending cuts.
Asked whether McCarthy was to blame for the House turmoil due to the concessions he made with the House Freedom Caucus to get elected speaker, Hinson said “McCarthy kept every promise he made to those folks.”
“We see a personal vendetta play out by the captain of the ‘Chaos Caucus’ Matt Gaetz on the floor of the House,” Hinson said. “It was atrocious. It’s abhorrent, and I’m hopeful that we as an institution can do better than that going forward.”
Iowa GOP U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, speaking to reporters Wednesday during a conference call, said the revolt by Gaetz and a few hard-line Republicans wastes time Congress could be using to pass spending bills for the upcoming year and "puts a lot of things in jeopardy,“ including aid to Ukraine and the Farm Bill.
Grassley said the legislative progress in the House is "completely stalled" until they vote to elect a new speaker.
“This is, of course, no way to govern,” Grassley said. “Americans are worried about the economy, border security and rampant crime. … We should be working to address these problems, not creating new ones. I call on Congress to do better.”
"It just puts sand in the gears of government,“ he said. ”And what’s worse is the people that caused this problem (Tuesday) are the very same ones that are complaining because we aren’t getting appropriation bills done.“
www.thegazette.com
The tumult has thrown Congress into chaos and shined a bright light on deep-seated dysfunction among House Republicans ahead of urgent work and rapidly approaching deadlines to pass spending bills to avert a government shutdown and authorize and keep U.S. military aid flowing to Ukraine.
No clear front-runner has emerged in the race to become the next Speaker of the House. GOP Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, have publicly thrown their hat in the ring in the race to lead the chamber.
Iowa Republican U.S. House Reps. Ashley Hinson, of Marion, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, of Ottumwa, on Thursday publicly declared their support for Scalise as the next House Speaker.
Hinson, speaking to reporters Thursday morning during a visit to Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, said she had spoken with both Scalise and Jordan in the last 24 hours, but has “a little bit more deliberating that I want to do before I announce my decision publicly.”
“That said I think it is imperative that we make that decision and get that decided next week as a caucus,” Hinson said. “We have a lot to do in the coming weeks before that deadline (to avert a government shutdown after government funding runs out) on Nov. 17. In my mind, it’s imperative we get that decided so we can move forward (and) we can heal as a conference, but we can also do the work that people sent us there to do. We need to get back to work for the American people.”
Roughly an hour later, Hinson’s office sent out a statement in support of Scalise.
“We need a Speaker who will unite our historically thin majority so we can put the drama behind us and help deliver the most conservative legislation possible as we are faced with several looming and important deadlines,” Hinson said in the statement.
She called Scalise “a principled conservative" who ”has overcome adversity far beyond the infighting in our Conference right now.“
Scalise in August announced he had been diagnosed with a treatable form of blood cancer known as multiple myeloma and was undergoing treatment.
The Louisiana Republican was among several people wounded in 2017 when a rifle-wielding attacker fired on lawmakers on a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington. Scalise was shot in the hip and endured lengthy hospitalizations, multiple surgeries and painful rehabilitation.
“He has the grit, strength, and faith to lead us and deliver for the American people,” Hinson said. "Steve shared with me his forward-looking vision to unite Republicans, bring conservative spending bills to the floor, and advance the priorities of Iowans. He loves our country, understands our conference, and is uniquely positioned to protect and grow our Republican majority.”
Miller-Meeks posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Thursday that under Scalise’s leadership House Republicans “will unite and continue to the great work for the American people.”
Fellow Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, of Bondurant, said he’s waiting to hear from all candidates running for the speakership before making a decision.
“As the last few weeks have again highlighted, the status quo in D.C. is critically broken, and I don’t want to rush the decision to select the right person to lead the fight to fix it,” Nunn said in a statement to The Gazette. “I’m waiting to make a decision until we have the opportunity to hear from everybody running about their vision to take on the D.C. bureaucracy, balance the budget, secure the border, and support the critical programs — like Medicare and Social Security — that Iowans rely on every day.”
A representative for Iowa U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon about the race for House Speaker.
Iowa's four Republican U.S. representatives voted to support keeping McCarthy in his leadership role.
The House is expected to convene next week to elect a new speaker. Hinson told reporters Thursday House Republicans will hold a “candidate forum” next week, ideally Tuesday.
Hinson decries ‘personal vendetta’ by Matt Gaetz ‘Chaos Caucus’
Eight hard-line Republicans and House Democrats voted to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a historic 216-210 vote Tuesday.
North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry, who chairs the Financial Services Committee, was named speaker pro tempore, an interim role with limited authority. Members must elect a new speaker before they can resume their legislative agenda.
McCarthy announced earlier this week that he would not run for speaker again, setting off a scramble to fill the leadership vacuum with no obvious favorite. Getting support from the majority of the chamber — a task which took McCarthy 15 rounds of voting over four days in January — won’t be easy.
Hinson said she’s hopeful House Republicans can elect a new speaker with one vote on the floor.
“I certainly hope it won’t take 15 ballots,” she said, “but I will be in for as many ballots as it takes for the candidate that I choose.”
Hinson told reporters the House needs to revisit its rules and mechanisms for ousting a speaker.
In order to appease the hard-line House Freedom Caucus and secure the speakership, one of the major concession McCarthy made was to reinstate a procedural mechanism called the motion to vacate the chair, which allows a single member to call a vote to oust the Speaker.
“If one member has this much power over the entire institution, I think that’s a big problem,” Hinson said. “So I’m hopeful we can take a look at that and make sure that this kind of breakdown in process doesn’t happen again, because I can certainly tell you Matt Gaetz isn’t the one suffering right now. It’s the people of this district who are worried about the uncertain times ahead for Congress.”
The Florida Republican congressman successfully pushed to oust McCarthy as speaker over clashes on aid to Ukraine and federal spending. Gaetz has criticized the debt deal McCarthy made with President Joe Biden and the vote to prevent a government shutdown, which Gaetz and other House Republicans opposed as they demanded steeper spending cuts.
Asked whether McCarthy was to blame for the House turmoil due to the concessions he made with the House Freedom Caucus to get elected speaker, Hinson said “McCarthy kept every promise he made to those folks.”
“We see a personal vendetta play out by the captain of the ‘Chaos Caucus’ Matt Gaetz on the floor of the House,” Hinson said. “It was atrocious. It’s abhorrent, and I’m hopeful that we as an institution can do better than that going forward.”
Iowa GOP U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, speaking to reporters Wednesday during a conference call, said the revolt by Gaetz and a few hard-line Republicans wastes time Congress could be using to pass spending bills for the upcoming year and "puts a lot of things in jeopardy,“ including aid to Ukraine and the Farm Bill.
Grassley said the legislative progress in the House is "completely stalled" until they vote to elect a new speaker.
“This is, of course, no way to govern,” Grassley said. “Americans are worried about the economy, border security and rampant crime. … We should be working to address these problems, not creating new ones. I call on Congress to do better.”
"It just puts sand in the gears of government,“ he said. ”And what’s worse is the people that caused this problem (Tuesday) are the very same ones that are complaining because we aren’t getting appropriation bills done.“
Who will be the next House speaker? Hinson, Miller-Meeks back Steve Scalise
Iowa Republican U.S. House Reps. Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks publicly declared their support for Steve Scalise as the next House Speaker.
www.thegazette.com
