The Republicans in the House of Representatives have nominated Representative Jim Jordan from Ohio as their possible new speaker, reports, among others New York Times. Jordan is considered a staunch right-wing Republican and is chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Jordan prevailed internally against Austin Scott of Georgia, an ally of ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Scott ran against Jordan in protest.
However, Jordan’s candidacy for speaker is not under particularly good auspices, as many mainstream Republicans have announced that they will not support him. This is the continuation of the bitter internal party dispute that is paralyzing the House.
Jordan is a co-founder of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus and a favorite of former President Donald Trump.
The Republicans initially nominated Steve Scalise for the post of chairman of the US House of Representatives. But he lacked the support within his own ranks to obtain the necessary majority in a vote.
Congress is virtually unable to act
The previous leader, Kevin McCarthy, was voted out as leader of the House of Representatives in a historic vote last week. Republicans from the radical right wing of the party had driven him from office. It was the first time in US history that a chairman of the House of Representatives lost his job in this way. The political drama largely brought parliament to a standstill.
Since Kevin McCarthy was overthrown on October 3 by dissidents in his own party, the US House of Representatives has been leaderless and the US Congress has been virtually unable to act. According to the constitution, all budget bills must first be introduced in the chamber. Work in the chamber is suspended until a new chairman is elected. Accordingly, the USA cannot decide on additional aid for Israel, approve further funds for Ukraine or pass a new budget.
If the House of Representatives does not reach an agreement with the Senate on a new budget by November 17th, there will be a “shutdown” – the halt in government activity – which McCarthy had prevented with interim financing. The background to McCarthy’s dismissal was that the ultra-right Republicans wanted to implement very deep spending cuts.
US President Joe Biden wants to present a draft additional budget to Congress next week. His spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre did not provide any details to journalists. However, according to NBC News, the Democrat wants to ask MPs for additional funds to support Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan as well as to secure the border with Mexico.