U.S. House adjourns without a speaker after GOP leader McCarthy loses sixth vote

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives adjourned for a second night this week without electing a new speaker after GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., failed in six consecutive votes to secure enough support to be elected to the post.

The House adjourned Wednesday night after breaking for several hours earlier in the evening to give Republicans more time to sway 20 of the party’s most conservative members that have been blocking McCarthy’s run for speaker. The House gaveled back in shortly after 8 p.m. ET only to quickly vote to adjourn until Thursday at noon.

Just ahead of adjourning, McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol that he didn’t have a deal with his opponents, but there was “a lot of progress.”

“I don’t think a vote tonight does any different, but a vote in the future will,” McCarthy said.

The lack of a speaker left the House in disarray, largely due to the fact that rank-and-file members can’t be sworn into office until a speaker is elected. This left all 434 members of the House technically still members-elect, not official voting representatives. 

The ripple effects of this historic procedural limbo were felt across Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Outgoing Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., pointed out that a host of constituent services were essentially frozen until the new Congress is sworn in.

“Who can legally help any and all of our citizens with issues we normally handle everyday?” Long tweeted. “Passports, IRS, Veterans issues, SBA, Post Office, Immigration issues, Corps of Engineers, etc.” 

He also questioned how congressional salaries would be allocated. “Who’s getting paid? Outgoing or incoming?”

Staffers to some newly elected members also told Politico they were unable to access their official email accounts because their bosses had not been sworn in yet. 

A core group of 20 GOP holdouts voted for Florida Rep. Byron Donalds in several rounds of votes Wednesday, each time denying McCarthy the 218 votes he needs to take the gavel.

All 212 Democrats voted for that party’s incoming Minority Leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

The mood on the House floor grew more contentious throughout the day, as Republicans loyal to McCarthy grew increasingly frustrated, and Democrats grew impatient over five hours of voting.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., renominated Donalds in the fifth round of voting before asking McCarthy to withdraw his name.

“You’ve been having my favorite president call us and tell us we need to knock this off,” Boebert said on the House floor, referring to former President Donald Trump. “I think it actually needs to be reversed. The president needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that ‘Sir, you do not have the votes and it’s time to withdraw.'”

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/04/house-speaker-election-goes-to-second-day-as-kevin-mccarthy-seeks-deal.html