Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives are set to meet Thursday as Republican Steve Scalise faces a test of whether he can get enough support from his party to become the next House speaker.<\/p>\n
Republicans nominated Scalise in a closed-door vote Wednesday to be their choice to replace former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted last week.<\/p>\n
He won the internal party ballot 113-99, beating out House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.<\/p>\n
The 58-year-old Scalise won the backing of Republicans with support primarily coming from long-time and establishment party members.<\/p>\n
Scalise must now gain approval of the full House, where Republicans hold a slim 221-212 majority, meaning they will need to unite behind a candidate in order to reach the required simple majority threshold to elect a speaker.<\/p>\n
It is not clear whether Jordan\u2019s supporters will back Scalise, although both men stated that following the closed-door vote, they would support the Republican Party’s nominee.<\/p>\n
McCarthy needed 15 rounds of voting to win in January as Democrats fully backed their candidate, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Some Republicans held out until McCarthy made certain concessions.<\/p>\n
Among the concessions was allowing any single member to file a motion to vacate and force a vote on whether to remove the speaker. Republican Representative Matt Gaetz filed a motion after McCarthy relied on Democratic votes to avert a government shutdown.<\/p>\n
This motion saw McCarthy become the first speaker to be formally voted out of his position.<\/p>\n
The speaker vacancy has brought work in the House to a halt, with a mid-November deadline pending to finish work on multiple funding bills or else again face the prospect of a government shutdown. Aid for Ukraine is also waiting for approval.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the urgent need for a resolution based on the recent developments in Israel has prompted Republican lawmakers to reiterate the need to swiftly elect a new speaker, allowing the House to return to work.<\/p>\n
“It’s really, really important that this Congress get back to work,” Scalise said.<\/p>\n
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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