2 hours ago
Luke Broadwater
As the speaker drama continues, the United States has no functional House of Representatives.
WASHINGTON — The personal and political drama that is playing out on the House floor as Representative Kevin McCarthy tries and fails repeatedly to become speaker also has broader implications for the country, raising questions about what happens when one chamber of the legislative branch ceases to function.
Without a speaker, the United States House of Representatives essentially becomes a useless entity. With no sworn members, there are no lawmakers to make an official response to an emergency or a crisis. With no rules adopted, the legislative process cannot move forward; no bills can be passed or resolutions adopted.
Oversight of the government or any other entity also cannot be performed. The House cannot haul witnesses before committees, and those elected to serve there cannot set up constituent services operations or even take their oaths of office.
That’s because law and precedents state that the House must elect a speaker before lawmakers take any other action.
“This brings up a ton of legitimate questions,” Billy Long, Republican of Missouri who left office with the close of the 117th Congress on Tuesday morning, wrote on Twitter. “Who can legally help any and all of our citizens with issues we normally handle everyday? Passports, IRS, #Veteran’s issues, SBA, Post Office, Immigration issues, Corps of Engineers, etc. who’s getting paid? Outgoing or incoming?”
Mr. Long changed his Twitter biography to make light of the predicament.
“Am I Still a Congressman until @EricBurlison is sworn in or not? Who’s minding the store? Welcome to Bizaroland.”
(Mr. Long is not a congressman, since the last Congress adjourned for a final time on Tuesday, even though Representative-elect Eric Burlison, who won the race to succeed him, has yet to be sworn in.)
Many Democrats were enjoying the dysfunction of a Republican-led House that could not find a way to elect a speaker, with some posting photos of popcorn while they mocked the discord. But others were starting to grow worried about more mundane matters, like, say, getting paid.
Representative Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, said on MSNBC on Wednesday that he wasn’t sure whether paychecks could still go out, and said lawmakers might ask for back pay.
Representative Chip Roy, Republican of Texas and one of Mr. McCarthy’s detractors, rejected concerns about a nonfunctioning House, and said Tuesday evening he didn’t think most Americans cared.
“Do you think anybody in America right now is like, ‘Oh my God, there’s not a speaker?’” he told reporters, adding that he believed there were untested legislative maneuvers the chamber could take to respond to an emergency should one arise. “We’re a body. We can go pass motions. We can do whatever. If there’s an emergency, we can do whatever we need to.”
But legal experts doubted whether any action taken by a House without a speaker — who, according to the Constitution, is second in line to the presidency — could withstand judicial review.
For more than 200 years, the House has used provisions from the Constitution and from a 1789 law to form the basis for its basic organizational order. According to the Revised Statutes of the United States, at the first session of Congress, the body must first swear in a speaker who then administers the oath of office to all members present, “previous to entering on any other business.”
This statute along with a precedent from March 4, 1869, provides that the duty of the House to organize itself proceeding to the election of the speaker is of the highest privilege. This precedent was reaffirmed on Jan. 7, 1997, when the clerk ruled that nominations for speaker were of a higher constitutional privilege than a resolution to postpone the election of speaker until an ethics review had run its course.
Given that history, some lawmakers are now questioning whether the chamber even exists.
“We effectively don’t have a House of Representatives,” said Representative Ted Lieu, Democrat of California.
Jan. 4, 2023, 5:16 p.m. ET2 minutes ago
2 minutes ago
Michael Gold
Representative Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, expressed frustration with the holdouts, saying, “I don’t like being held hostage.” He noted that the group is not cohesive, and it keeps changing its demands on what concessions it would need.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/04 ... eaker-vote