1/8/23

By Aditi Jha

Kevin McCarthy has been elected as the new Speaker of the House. A Speaker's main job is to lead the House of Representatives. It has historically been a member of the majority party, but it's not a Constitutional requirement that it has to be. The Speaker sets the legislative agenda of the House and controls committees. This makes it an incredibly important job because the Speaker can unite their party to support major legislation and therefore achieve the party's key goals. The Speaker of the House is also second in the presidential line of succession, following the vice president. The Speaker of the House is elected every two years, and the former Speaker was Nancy Pelosi before she stepped down on January 3rd. Every time the House has to vote for a new Speaker of the House, that's the first thing they are able to do. The House can't do anything before voting for a Speaker, including swearing-in new members and establishing rules. In order to become Speaker, the candidate must have the majority of the House voting for them- that's 218 votes. For over a century, the Speaker has been decided on the first vote. However, over several repeated votes, McCarthy wasn't able to get the required 218 votes to become speaker and fulfill his more-than-seven-year dream- even though Republicans have 222 seats in the House. This was due to infighting- several Republicans (notably Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert) believed that McCarthy wasn't conservative enough and wasn't the right person for the job. After several meetings, McCarthy offered enough incentives to encourage those Republicans to vote for him. Those incentives included making it so just one lawmaker could make the motion to oust him from Speaker, there's a select committee on the "weaponization of the Department of Justice," and Freedom Caucus members have more representation on the Rules Committee. Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky said that there will probably be "one person who tries to abuse" the motion to remove McCarthy as Speaker but the majority of House Republicans are "going to give him a chance." Now that Kevin McCarthy is Speaker of the House, the GOP plans to investigate Hunter Biden, the Department of Justice, the FBI, the southern border, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and the origins of COVID-19. McCarthy said on CNN before the 2022 midterms that his goals are to fight inflation and crime. As his first speech as House Speaker, he said that now "the hard work begins," and "what we do here today, next week, next month, next year, will set the tone for everything that follows."

That's the news for today! Stay safe!