WASHINGTON: House Republicans selected Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana as the party’s nominee for speaker behind closed doors Wednesday morning — though questions remain if Scalise will be able to secure the 217 votes needed to win the position on the floor, reported German news agency (dpa).
Scalise defeated House Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, paving the way for floor action as early as Wednesday afternoon, lawmakers leaving the GOP conference meeting said. The vote was 113-99, according to Representative Darrell Issa of California.
The position is important because it is the speaker who moves legislation to the House floor. Without a speaker, lawmakers cannot pass new laws.
Scalise would replace the former speaker, Kevin McCarthy of California, who was removed from his role by eight Republicans and all House Democrats after Florida Republican Matt Gaetz filed a motion to vacate the speaker’s position last week.
It was the second vote in Scalise’s favour Wednesday, after an effort to raise the threshold for the conference to select a speaker was tabled.
Republican House members Chip Roy of Texas and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania introduced a measure that would have required the party’s selection for speaker to receive 217 votes in conference before moving to the floor.
That attempt was rejected on a 135-88 vote.
While proponents of that measure argued that it would save the party from a repeat of the messy floor fight that ended in McCarthy’s January election, opponents believed it would stretch out the election and empower any small group of members to make demands.
However, that dynamic is still in play on the floor, as Scalise can only afford to lose four Republican votes and still become speaker. Some Jordan backers, including Issa, Ohio’s Max Miller and Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, emerged from the conference meeting Wednesday saying they still planned to vote for him on the floor.
Scalise, a former chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, served as the Republican whip in both the majority and minority from 2014 to his ascension to majority leader.
During the election, Scalise has focused on unifying the conference in his pitch. He’s also highlighted border security, fighting inflation and oversight of the Biden administration as top priorities of House Republicans.
Scalise will now have to wrangle 217 votes from a rowdy Republican conference, many of whom backed Jordan in the conference vote.
If he secures the votes necessary on the floor, Scalise will be undergoing treatment for blood cancer at the start of his speakership.
He announced his diagnosis in April and said he would be undergoing “several months” of treatment for the disease. –Bernama
