- Jordan remains the Republican Party’s candidate for chairman, but if McHenry is allowed to change legislation such as spending bills and support for Israel, immediate pressure will ease
- The resolution will have to be voted on in the House of Representatives. It’s likely Democrats will support it
Top Republican Rep. Jim Jordan called off a third round of voting after his crushing defeat Wednesday, amid signs he could lose the support of his Republican colleagues.
The conservative, who dropped votes in his first two bids, will now backtrack by handing Kevin McCarthy ally Patrick McHenry the gavel in a temporary bid to end the gridlock that has paralyzed Congress for 15 days.
McHenry would act as a caretaker until embattled Republicans in the House of Representatives can find a solution to resolve the chaos that has engulfed the party since McCarthy was ousted two weeks ago.
Jordan remains a Republican candidate for speaker and buys himself more time to get skeptical colleagues on his side.
But the move would allow McHenry to push back legislation such as spending bills and aid to Israel by a month until the government shuts down again.
The resolution will have to be voted on in the House of Representatives. It’s likely Democrats will support it.
With the government shutdown deadline approaching on November 17 and the outbreak of war in the Middle East, Congress is under pressure to find a solution to the leadership problem – even though no candidate has a clear path to a 217 majority in the hall.
The resolution, which is expected to empower McHenry through January, could attract an odd coalition of staunch Jordan supporters and moderate Republicans who support it, and Jordanian opponents and other conservatives who oppose it.
Jim Jordan will not cast a third vote as chairman and will back a resolution to temporarily authorize interim chairman Patrick McHenry, giving him more time to try to shore up votes after opposition to his candidacy increased on Wednesday.
If McHenry is given the power to amend legislation, Jordan will have more time to vote in favor of the judge. McHenry could do the so-called “dirty work”: working with the Democratic-led House of Representatives to introduce legislation to fund the government for the 2024 fiscal year and possibly address hot-button issues like aid to Ukraine.
It comes after Jordan lost 22 votes on Wednesday in his second vote as speaker of the House of Representatives, after losing 20 on Tuesday. He can only afford to lose four and still become speaker.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a supporter of Jordan, said that would be “unconstitutional” and would “do enormous damage to the House of Representatives.”
“Never in the history of this institution, to the best of my knowledge, have we ever appointed a Speaker Pro Tem with full authority as speaker without selecting a duly elected speaker,” Roy told reporters. ‘We are going to play games with such an important position, the third in line for the presidency. We have to do our job. It’s like speaking, otherwise the Constitution says so.’