Table Of Content
As demonstrations over the war in Gaza have surged on campuses, around cities and in offices across the US in recent weeks, a visible tension has emerged between the desire for public protest and a fear of professional reprisals. The protesters at Columbia say they’re outraged by Israel’s invasion of Gaza, and are sparring with university administrators, including president Minouche Shafik. Columbia’s leaders yesterday began suspending students who remained at a protest encampment after an afternoon deadline to disperse, and hours later, dozens of protesters took over a university building on Columbia’s Manhattan campus. The top House Democrats, including minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, say they will oppose any attempt by congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and other rightwing Republicans to remove Mike Johnson as the chamber’s speaker. It’s not simply that Ms. Greene has taken such a Putin-pleasing approach to Russia’s war in Ukraine (Ukrainian Nazis? Really?) that the term “useful idiot” feels unavoidable. She has, in very little time, undermined the influence of her party’s entire right flank, driving less unhinged Republicans — most notably the House speaker, Mike Johnson — to brush back her and her ilk like the poo-flinging chaos monkeys they are.
Explainer: How the House of Representatives Elects a Speaker
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene files motion to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson - NPR
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene files motion to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Posted: Fri, 22 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
When speaker elections have gone to multiple ballots, no speaker has ever been elected on ballots four to eight. A New York Times article last year called Johnson “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections” on Jan. 6, 2021. His argument to colleagues was that certain states’ changes to their voting procedures during the Covid-19 pandemic were unconstitutional, an argument that became more palatable to lawmakers than the fabricated claims of mass fraud. Clark’s ascension to a top House leadership position comes less than 10 years after she entered Congress representing Massachusetts’ 5th Congressional District, a Democratic stronghold outside Boston. She won a special election in 2013 to succeed Democrat Ed Markey, following his election to the Senate, and has comfortably won reelection ever since.
January 1983
The deciding vote in January is typically a party-line vote, so no Democrats are expected to back McCarthy. That means with Republicans winning a narrow majority in the House, McCarthy can only afford to lose a small handful of Republican votes. An election for speaker took place on January 3, 2021, at the start of the 117th Congress, two months after the 2020 elections in which Democrats won a slim majority of the seats. An election for speaker took place on January 3, 1947, on the opening day of the 80th Congress, two months after the 1946 elections in which Republicans won a majority of the seats.
Uncertainty about the process has led to prolonged gridlock in past eras of political conflict
“From the very beginning of the Congress, House Republican have visited chaos, dysfunction and extremism on the American people,” Jeffries said Wednesday. “We need leaders in the House of Representatives that are going to get this done,” said Greene, R-Ga., holding up a red “MAGA” hat from Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign movement. Greene said she wants every Republican and Democrat on the record with next week's vote despite the likely futile exercise to oust Johnson.
Republican Leadership
In effect, the threshold decreases by a vote for every two people who answer present or do not participate. The vote for Speaker is a rare instance where a verbal roll call is made of each Member. The House usually records its votes by electronic means, which saves a lot of time and allows Members to vote at any time during the minutes usually reserved for a roll call. But the Speaker’s election is different, partly by tradition, but also because it is not a yes or no vote.
What comes next after Johnson's election
The challenge for House Republicans is they still have eight more spending bills to pass including two that have been stuck in committee because of disagreements within GOP ranks. In his letter to colleagues, Johnson set out an aggressive time table for passing the bills, but the issue will be finding a way to pass the legislation in just a narrow GOP majority. Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota declined Tuesday to say whether former President Donald Trump was a factor in his decision to end his bid for the speakership. Republicans held a candidate forum Tuesday night with five members vying to be the next speaker-designee after Emmer withdrew. Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana won in a three-round vote late Tuesday to become the next speaker-designee — the fourth since Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California was ousted from the position on Oct. 3. Scalise had been the party's first nominee after McCarthy was ousted, but withdrew his name one day after winning the internal GOP vote.
December 1801
An election for speaker took place on January 6, 1943, on the opening day of the 78th Congress, two months after the 1942 elections in which Democrats won a majority of the seats. An election for speaker took place on January 3, 1941, on the opening day of the 77th Congress, two months after the 1940 elections in which Democrats won a majority of the seats. An election for speaker took place on January 3, 1939, on the opening day of the 76th Congress, two months after the 1938 elections in which Democrats won a majority of the seats. William B. Bankhead received a majority of the votes cast and was re-elected speaker.
It is exceptionally rare for a Member-elect to vote for the other party’s candidate. The last to do so was the colorful, late Jim Traficant, a Democrat from Ohio, who voted for Speaker J. Dennis “Denny” Hastert in 2001. The Democrats responded by refusing to assign him to any committees, making him the first rank-and-file Member without committee assignments in almost 100 years. An election for speaker took place on November 4, 1811, at the start[c] of the 12th Congress, following the 1810–11 elections in which Democratic-Republicans won a majority of the seats. Henry Clay, a freshman congressman, received a majority of the votes cast and was elected speaker.[16] This marks the only time in American History a Speaker of the House was elected on their first ever day on its floor. More than seven years later, he is the party’s nominee for speaker after leading the Republican Party to a slim majority in the November midterm elections.
January 2013
Congress, Muhlenberg went on to serve two non-consecutive terms as Speaker, from 1789 to 1791 in the 1st Congress and from 1793 to 1795 in the 3rd Congress. The longest-serving and perhaps most influential Speaker in history was Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn, who served as Speaker from 1940 to 1947, 1949 to 1953, and 1955 to 1961. Working closely with House committees and members from both parties, Speaker Rayburn ensured the passage of several controversial domestic policies and foreign aid bills backed by Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Perhaps most clearly indicating the importance of the position, the Speaker of the House stands second only to the Vice President of the United States in the line of presidential succession. Ballotpedia features 486,870 encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. It will need to come up as a suspension vote — an expedited process that requires a two-thirds majority for passage.
His first speakership run came when then-House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) resigned after an internal party battle with members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus. Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy is set to face a case of deja vu come Tuesday. The political future of the 57-year-old will once again be at stake as GOP lawmakers decide whether he should be elected as House speaker. To win the Speakership, a person must secure a simple majority of those present and voting. If all 435 Representatives-elect vote for a particular person, the majority would be 218. For each person who answers present or otherwise does not vote, the threshold to win a majority decreases.
Greene and Massie said the final straw for them was Johnson's support of the $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies in their war efforts. Massie said Johnson should resign before the vote, accusing the speaker of "complete capitulation" to Democrats. In a statement, Johnson condemned the action of Greene and her planned motion to vacate.
The House passed a resolution in support of Israel in the war against Hamas – the first measure to come to the floor after Speaker Mike Johnson was elected earlier Wednesday following three weeks without a speaker. As House Republicans gathered earlier in the week to select their third nominee for speaker, Trump vowed to remain on the sidelines of the race. But hours after Emmer won the nod in a closed-door vote by the conference Tuesday morning, the former president lambasted the Minnesota Republican, writing on Truth Social that "voting for a Globalist RINO like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake." Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, another Scalise supporter, told reporters after Johnson was elected speaker-designate that he believes Republicans are "back" and the conference's agenda "back on track." The new speaker has been in Congress since 2017 and has no experience in the House leadership. Johnson was the party's fourth nominee for speaker in three weeks, having taken the place of Rep. Tom Emmer, whose candidacy lasted all of four hours on Tuesday.
All candidates for speaker must be nominated by members of the House, but they don’t need to be elected lawmakers of the chamber. Article I, Section II of the Constitution says only that the House “shall chuse [sic] their Speaker and other officers.” So far, the chamber has only chosen its own members as speaker. After three weeks without a speaker, the House voted Wednesday to elect Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
Mr. Johnson has opposed continued funding for the war in Ukraine, which has emerged as a bitter fault line in the G.O.P. and in the spending battles that he will have to navigate in the coming days. Mr. Johnson immediately faces a host of challenges that dogged his predecessor, Mr. McCarthy. He is confronting a mid-November deadline to pass a measure to fund the government to avert a shutdown. And he will need to lead a conference deeply divided over foreign policy as Congress considers the Biden administration’s $105 billion funding request for Israel, Ukraine and the southern border. Evoking his evangelical Christian faith, Mr. Johnson repeatedly referred to scripture in his speech from the House floor.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had asked the Supreme Court to block "the use of unlawful election results without review and ratification by" the four state legislatures and allow them to appoint a different slate of presidential electors. Rep. Carlos Giménez of Florida, who supported McCarthy over Jordan, called Johnson a "straightforward leader" who can unite the Republican conference in a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Gimenez, former chief of the City of Miami Fire Department, highlighted that both Johnson and McCarthy are the sons of firefighters. But last month, he voted for a Rep. Matt Gaetz amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have cut off all security assistance for Ukraine. That amendment failed, , with a majority of Republicans voting against the amendment.
No comments:
Post a Comment