As war rages in Israel and Eastern Europe – and a U.S. budget deadline is looming next month – the nation’s House of Representatives is currently paralyzed without a Speaker. The path forward remains foggy.
“It is completely unclear what happens next, and it is of high consequence,” CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan told Audacy’s KCBS Radio in San Francisco. “We are at a new level of dysfunction in Washington.”
Fighting within the Republican party already brought the U.S. close to a government shutdown, and it has now left the chamber without a Speaker of the House. Republicans – lead by a far-right faction known as the Freedom Caucus – ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California earlier this month.
This week, it seemed that Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana would get the role, but he took himself out of the running. Now, the party has nominated Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a member of the Freedom Caucus.
Jordan doesn’t appear to have enough votes to clear the 217 thresholds to become Speaker, with 81 lawmakers from his own party voting to nominate Rep.
Austin Scott of Georgia instead. However, Jordan does have this weekend to campaign.
“As he makes a final push for the speakership, he faces his own choice: Does he stick with his recent transformation into a team player?” POLITICO asked in a Saturday report. “Or does he revert back to the tough tactics he built his reputation on?”
If Jordan isn’t able to “bully” his way into the position, as POLITICO said he might, the House will be back at square one next week with around a month until the next budget deadline on Nov. 17.
That’s not the only issue putting pressure on the House to get a new Speaker. The U.S. is already working to help Ukraine fight off a Russian invasion that began early last year, and a surprise attack by the Hamas terrorist group in Israel last week plunged the Middle East into war. Now the U.S., Israel’s main ally, is also sending military help to the area around the Gaza Strip.
“The House remains effectively frozen as long as there is no speaker, a dire situation that comes as Congress faces a fast-approaching government funding deadline in mid-November and as crisis unfolds abroad in Ukraine and with Israel’s war against Hamas,” said CNN.
The New York Times reported this week that, without a Speaker, the House can’t: approve an aid package for Israel for its war against Hamas, approve more assistance for Ukraine in its war against Russia and avoid the government shutdown. Still, Democrats aren’t gearing up to help the GOP get out of the mess in the House, according to NBC News.
“House Republicans have selected as their nominee to be the speaker of the people’s House the chairman of the chaos caucus, a defender in a dangerous way of dysfunction, and an extremist extraordinaire,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Friday of Jim Jordan, according to the outlet. “His focus has been on peddling lies and conspiracy theories and driving division amongst the American people.”
As the chaos continues, Americans’ opinions about the GOP are getting worse, according to CNN poll results released this week.