The GOP’s infighting and inability to elect a House speaker means the lower chamber cannot get to work, potentially delaying crucial legislation
The repeated failures by House Republicans to elect a new speaker are making the federal government more likely to shut down next month, as the GOP’s weeks-long internal dysfunction threatens to delay vital legislation.
The House has been mostly closed for business since Oct. 3, when a band of far-right rebels ousted then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Republicans since have not coalesced around a replacement, running through multiple options without electing anyone. Without a speaker, lawmakers can’t bring bills to the floor.
Policy discussions have ground to a halt, even as war has broken out in Israel and federal funding is weeks away from expiring. Congress has until Nov. 17 to approve a deal to fund the government, or members of the military risk missing paychecks, national parks will close and the Internal Revenue Service will run shoestring operations.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The repeated failures by House Republicans to elect a new speaker are making the federal government more likely to shut down next month, as the GOP’s weeks-long internal dysfunction threatens to delay vital legislation.
Congress has until Nov. 17 to approve a deal to fund the government, or members of the military risk missing paychecks, national parks will close and the Internal Revenue Service will run shoestring operations.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) went on “Fox News Sunday” and CBS’s “Face the Nation” over the weekend to press the case for what has quickly become Biden’s signature foreign policy legislation — and to encourage the House to act.
The House was set to grant Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), the speaker pro tempore, expanded powers to bring legislation to the floor in light of the deteriorating situation in Israel and Gaza and the approaching funding deadline.
Facing an imminent government shutdown in September, McCarthy passed a short-term funding bill called a “continuing resolution,” or CR, that kept federal operations going at current spending levels and jettisoned a Senate request for aid for Ukraine.
Hard-line Republicans, particularly in the House Freedom Caucus, have a severe distaste for CRs, preferring instead to pass full-year appropriations bills that fund individual government agencies and programs.
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