In times of international turmoil, the US House of Representatives remains preoccupied. In the vote for a chairman, the arch-conservative Trump loyalist Jordan failed again on the second attempt.
After two inconclusive rounds of voting to fill the top office in the House of Representatives, the deadlock continues. The Republican Jim Jordan also failed in the election for chairman of the Chamber of Congress in the second attempt. Due to dissenting votes from his own group, the confidant of former US President Donald Trump once again missed the necessary majority in the vote.
The House of Representatives is still largely politically paralyzed for the time being. Because until a new chairman is appointed, legislative work there is largely idle.
Jordan received even fewer votes than the day before
Jordan had already failed to obtain the required number of votes in the parliamentary chamber in the first round of voting on Tuesday. In the vote on Wednesday, the 59-year-old received 199 votes from his group, one vote less than the day before. It is unclear whether he will be able to win enough skeptics from within his own ranks to his side.
After his repeated defeat in the vote, Jordan said he did not yet know whether he would also run for a third round.
The Republicans only have a slim majority in the House of Representatives. The parliamentary group currently has 221 seats in the parliamentary chamber, while US President Joe Biden’s Democrats have 212 seats. Jordan can therefore only afford very few deviations. He cannot count on support from the Democratic ranks.
Unusual initiative aims to overcome deadlock
What happens next is questionable. A group of lawmakers from both parties had suggested that interim leader Patrick McHenry be given additional powers so that the House of Representatives can return to work and carry out at least routine tasks. It is a highly unusual proposal, but the situation in which the House of Representatives finds itself is also unprecedented.