House Reconvenes for Fourth Round of House Speaker Election
On Wednesday, Congressional lawmakers reconvened to hold its fourth round of voting to determine the next U.S. House Speaker.
Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) was nominated for Speaker as was New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. House Freedom Caucus chairman Chip Roy nominated Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) for the Speaker’s gavel.
While the fourth round of voting is ongoing, Rep. Donalds has already secured 20 votes for Speaker, meaning McCarthy will once again fall short of the 218 threshold- sending Congress to a fifth round of voting.
Notably, no Republican followed Tuesday’s lead to nominate Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan. Jordan, who is expected to chair the House Judiciary Committee received 19 votes for Speaker during Tuesday’s round of voting.
Rep. Jordan cast his vote for Rep. McCarthy for House Speaker.
On Tuesday, no nominee received the 218 votes needed to win the Speaker’s gavel sending lawmakers into chaos.
Over the weekend, Rep. McCarthy offered a number of concessions including allowing a move to “vacate the chair” that would force a vote on ousting the Speaker with the approval of five Republican members, rather than a threshold of at least half of the House GOP Conference that Republicans adopted in an internal rule in November.
The chamber is also scheduled to create a House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government,” a recognition of a request to increase scrutiny on the Biden administration and intelligence agencies.
In a letter to GOP colleagues, McCarthy — speaking as “Speaker-Designate” — also addressed a request from conservatives to have more representation on committees.
“I will use my selections on key panels to ensure they more closely reflect the ideological makeup of our conference, and will advocate for the same when it comes to the membership of standing committees. This will facilitate greater scrutiny of bills from the start so they stand a greater chance of passing in the end,” the letter from McCarthy said.
This story is breaking and will be updated as more information becomes available.













