Representative Kevin McCarthy, the former speaker of the House, was removed from his position on Oct. 3, with a 216-210 vote. McCarthy was the first speaker to be removed successfully from the House of Representatives.
The speaker of the House oversees the House of Representatives and is always from the majority party in the House. To elect a new speaker, the House must take a vote.
McCarthy was elected for the Speaker Position in January, however, he faced resistance from House Republicans such as Matt Gaetz. It took 15 rounds of votes to elect McCarthy before he could assume the position, requiring more rounds of voting than any other time before the Civil War, according to CBS News.
Without a speaker, the House is essentially paralyzed and can not pass any legislation. This is important because all bills regarding revenue start in the House. “Biden asked for money for Israel, Ukraine, and border security, but the House cannot pass any of that legislation,” government teacher Keith Yanity said.
The reason that McCarthy was removed from his position as speaker is because far-right members of the House were frustrated that McCarthy worked with Democrats to pass a short-term spending bill and help avoid a government shutdown, according to CNN.
If the House did not have a speaker by Nov. 17, then the government would shut down. During this time, “people’s parents will not get paid if they work government jobs,” Yanity said.
Government shutdowns can take any amount of time but in the past, they have ranged from a couple hours to an entire month. If people can not get paid for an entire month that would drastically affect their lives.
The House has gone through several possible speaker candidates including Jim Jordan and Tom Emmer, and, on Wednesday, Oct. 25, the House elected Mike Johnson to be the next speaker of the House.
Jim Jordan was dropped by the GOP after he lost three votes for the position. Then Tom Emmer won the nomination but he dropped out after a couple of hours because it was clear that he did not have the votes to win. Finally, the Republicans nominated Mike Johnson who became speaker of the House on Oct. 25.
Johnson is a representative from Louisiana and, according to CNN, was a vocal supporter of former president Donald Trump and was part of the failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Johnson is known to be anti-LGTBQ and against abortion. Students are concerned about Johnson and his opinions. “I don’t agree with his opinions especially when it comes to LGTBQ people and some of his opinions are extremely misguided,” senior Jax Koby said.
According to CNN, Johnson wrote an editorial in his local paper saying that homosexuality is “inherently unnatural and dangerous.”
Students have concerns about Johnson’s priorities. “I feel slightly concerned because I’m worried he may try to target minorities,” sophomore Avantika Selvarajan said.
