The Journal. - Why the House Still Doesn’t Have a Speaker

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

The U.S. House of Representatives has been without a Speaker for more than a week. Now, Republicans say that they have a nominee for the position. WSJ’s Katy Stech Ferek describes the recent chaos, why Republicans appear to have rallied around Steve Scalise and what happens next. Further Reading: -Republicans Nominate Steve Scalise for House Speaker Over Jim Jordan  -Could Steve Scalise Quell the House GOP Revolt to Become Speaker?  Further Listening:  -The Fight Over the Speaker of the House  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. House of Representatives hasn't had a permanent speaker for more than a week. Our colleague Katie Stetsch-Ferrick has had a ringside seat. What is the vibe around Capitol Hill these days? There's a lot of disbelief that we're in this moment. A lot of, among House Republicans, a lot of frustration that they're in this moment. And a lot of urgency that something needs to be done to fix the fact that we do not have a House speaker. Today, House Republicans sought to change that by putting forward one name. House Republicans sought to change that by putting forward one name, veteran lawmaker and current House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

Why is it so urgent to get a speaker in place? There is a lot to do in Congress right now. Right now, federal agencies are operating off of a temporary spending extension that they got at the last minute about two weeks ago. So Congress needs to figure out spending levels for federal agency for the next year. Ukraine, President Zelensky was here a few weeks ago asking for more aid and weapons to assist in the conflict. And that was before this past weekend with attacks in Israel. Things got a lot more urgent after that when lawmakers realized that they aren't even in a position to respond and condemn the attacks, let alone send over money or weapons or anything else that Israel might need. But actually getting the speaker's gavel into Scalise's hand is already proving to be a challenge. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Kate Leinbaugh. It's Wednesday, October 11th. Coming up on the show, will Republicans unite around Steve Scalise to be the next Speaker of the House? with customized coverage options for your business. Because at TD Insurance, we understand that your business is unique, so your business insurance should be too. Contact a licensed TD Insurance advisor to learn more. Alright, so in the book that's the history of the House of Representatives, if such a thing were to exist, what would the title of this chapter be? Surprise, we don't have House Speaker. Like, a lot of dysfunction.

We're speakerless. Yeah. Where'd our speaker go? Time for a new speaker. Dysfunction and chaos within House Republicans. Subtitle. Okay. So, kind of big picture, what does a Speaker of the House do? Yeah, Speaker of the House is a very important job. They decide what legislation, what proposals

get called up, which are sent to committee, which are discussed. They guide debate on the House floor. But beyond those kind of administrative, you know, civics textbook kind of duties, the position has evolved to the point where the speaker is like the leader of their party. They are expected to participate in the future of the party by going or set up the party for success by going to recruit candidates there's a lot of fundraising duties it's a lot of press conferences and dinners and fundraisers it kind of has like that boss managerial job too where you're expected to know everyone's family and what's important to them and who's going through a challenge and have that kind of in the back of your mind as well. So there's a lot that goes on with this job,

not to mention that you're third in line for the presidency. There you go. It's an important job. Yeah, to say the least. And Kevin McCarthy had that job for approximately nine months. Yeah, yeah, it was in a historic amount of time. He was installed in January. It was well past midnight, but after 15 grueling votes, the incoming elected members

of the U.S. House of Representatives have finally elected Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. He had to make a lot of promises and concessions to lawmakers to bring them on board. And they always were sort of hanging in the background, criticizing him, making his job difficult. Why were Republicans so divided about him? The hard right Republicans are pushing for more conservative policies, for McCarthy to be more aggressive in pushing through policies on border security, for example, or spending cuts. They want him to be as aggressive as possible.

And you mentioned that he had to make some concessions to even get the job. He did, yes. One big concession would come back to bite him. Can you tell us about that? Absolutely. Yeah, it's called come back to bite him. Can you tell us about that? Absolutely. Yeah, it's called the motion to vacate. This motion to vacate was put forward by one of McCarthy's biggest Republican adversaries,

Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz. It's a procedure that allows one member of the House to call up what's essentially a vote of confidence at any moment and kind of force House lawmakers to decide whether or not the speaker should remain in place. Prior to this concession, that superpower was reserved for leadership. But in order to become Speaker, McCarthy, he had to agree to this. So this was sort of always hanging in the background during his speakership and always an option. We had no idea if it would ever be used and it came up. Florida Representative Matt Gaetz has called for a vote to oust Kevin McCarthy from his role as Speaker. He says he's coming for you. Can you survive? Yes, I'll survive.

The yeas are 216. The nays are 210. Eight Republicans join all Democrats in voting to remove him. For the first time in the history of the United States, the Speaker of the House has been removed. McCarthy was ousted last week, and a temporary acting Speaker was appointed, Patrick McHenry from North Carolina. McHenry sent all lawmakers home for a cooling-off period. And during that time, two Republicans interested in McCarthy's job raised their hands. Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan. Let's start with Steve Scalise.

Who is he? He's a Louisiana lawmaker. He's been around for a while. You might remember him actually from, most notably, he was shot in 2017 during a baseball practice for the congressional ball game. You know, I mean, my femur was shattered. The hip and pelvis had serious damage where the bullet went through and, you know, did some damage to areas that had to be shored up with steel plates. He was very seriously injured and made a full recovery.

And he's also, for the last decade or so, held very important positions in leadership, including being the whip, which is one of those positions where you sort of have to know everybody, know how they're going to vote, know their families, and kind of always take the temperature of the different members and where they're at. And he was running against Ohio representative Jim Jordan. What's Jordan known for? Jordan, oh, he is, well, he's a former wrestling coach that looks like a former wrestling coach. You know, when he walks down the hallways, he always sort of like, it's an athletic kind of gait. Jordan formed the House Freedom Caucus in 2015, which is the group of very hard right

Republicans who are frustrated that they felt that leadership was not pushing for policies that were their brand of conservatism. He heads the House Judiciary Committee, so he's in the fold. Jim Jordan is also supported by President Trump. He goes on Fox News a lot more. The White House is getting all ready because they know what's likely to happen later this month. The Speaker's been clear about this. If we need to go to an impeachment inquiry phase of our oversight work, we will do that. How are they different, like, on a policy level? On paper, I wouldn't say they're totally different birds on policies. I mean, they both want the same direction for the party.

They both feel the same way about policies and immigration and spending. How has this played out in recent days? When it was time for everyone to come back from their break, on Monday night, House Republicans came back and they had kind of like a family dinner on Monday night. It was like an open mic style over barbecue. And it was an opportunity for people to just talk. There wasn't really a format. Lawmakers were able to talk. There was a lot of frustration towards the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to house McCarthy. There was a lot of discussion over who should lead and how can the party unify, how we put this chapter behind us. And then last night, House Republicans met again, this time for

a candidate forum. Both candidates spoke, said what their qualifications were, a lot of discussion on spending, how to move forward to try to get people who had not yet announced their endorsement to commit to them. So it was like both candidates' last chance to make their pitch. Exactly. You know, both of them talked a lot about spending and moving the party forward and unifying. I mean, that's the biggest question is how to manage Republicans going forward and how to bring people on board so that they can work together and get policies through that are important to members. And so as of last night, was there a sense of who was ahead? No. Even after the meeting,

reporters went around asking people who they supported whether they changed their minds, and there were still a lot of folks that haven't said how they're going to vote and haven't said who they're going to support. Last night, it was anyone's guess who the Republicans would choose. And by today, they would have a nominee. That's next.

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free beer, wine, and premium snacks in economy class. Now extended to flights within Canada and the U.S. Cheers to taking off this summer. More details at aircanada.S. Cheers to taking off this summer. More details at aircanada.com. The House was set to reconvene today at 3 p.m. Ahead of that, all the Republican congresspeople met privately to decide on their pick for Speaker, Scalise or Jordan.

Before going into the closed-door meeting, Scalise was swarmed by reporters. We're looking forward to going in there. Obviously, we have a very important vote. It's really, really important that this Congress get back to work. We select a Speaker, go to the House floor. Katie was there, waiting outside the room and sending us updates. House Republicans went into their meeting to try to figure out who their nominee would be.

At one point, they were considering adopting a rule that would kind of essentially force them to stay in the room until they had at least 217 votes, which is the number you need right now, 217 votes for their nominee. This was sort of an effort to try to prevent what happened in January with McCarthy and all those rounds of voting. Ultimately, Republicans did not adopt that rule, and they just went straight to a vote for their nominee. for their nominee. And Scalise won. He got 113 votes. Jordan got 99. And there was applause, there was cheering. The issue now is math. In order to become the next speaker, Scalise needs enough Republicans to vote for him. Out of 221 Republicans in the House, he needs 217 on his side. And so there's a big question we've already heard from some lawmakers who said that they are not going to vote for Scully,

that they're going to continue to vote for Jordan on the floor. We don't know what happens next. I mean, do they move forward when it's clear that as of a few minutes ago, they don't have the support that they need for the speaker? Are they going to do a million rounds like they did in January? How is this going to play out? So we have a little bit more information than we did yesterday, but that question of who can win enough support to become speaker,

that question is still out there, and we really don't know what's going to happen next. What are the concerns that Republicans have about Scalise? Yeah, there's concerns about Scalise that he will not be able to unify the party and bring those hard right conservatives on board. There are also concerns about his health. He was diagnosed with the form of blood cancer earlier this year. You know, he says his doctors cleared him for the job, that he'll be able to do it. He's been undergoing treatment and. You know, he says his doctors cleared him for the job, that he'll be able to do it. He's been undergoing treatment and, you know, he's been wearing a mask around the campus. And I think there's some concerns about the stamina. I mean, we talked about all the responsibilities

associated with this job. And I think that that's weighing on some folks. Now, Scalise will have to rally Republican lawmakers to his side, and he may have to engage in the same kind of horse trading that McCarthy did back in January. A sign that it's going to take some time was the House immediately calling for a recess today without voting on a new speaker. I think there's a lot of acknowledgement going in

that it would take several rounds, it would take a lot of rallying, that people might be hesitant to change their support if their candidate, their preferred candidate doesn't emerge as the person that other folks want, that has most of the support. You know, going back to McCarthy, it took four days and 15 rounds. What does this situation tell us about the Republican Party? So the party has had a lot of warring factions for a while. That dynamic isn't new. It just kind of ebbs and flows. And we're at a moment where the lack of unity within the party has kind of crescendoed. You can just look across the spectrum and see the different viewpoints and how far apart they are on how the party should

move forward. What's the big thing you're watching for next? I think everyone is looking to see if the next speaker will indeed be able to unify the party and legislate and push policies forward. For example, everyone will be watching to see if this new speaker is able to find a way to extend government spending beyond November 17th. That's one of the first tests. I think there's a big question as to whether or not anyone will be able to lead this party. That's all for today, Wednesday, October 11th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon.

Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.