Rep. Jim Jordan’s first failed bid to secure the Speakership has renewed calls for expanding the limited powers of Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.)
Jordan’s loss of 20 GOP votes — one more than former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in his first of 15 votes to secure the gavel — has left the GOP even more uncertain about when it can reach consensus over who should lead the party. A second planned vote was abruptly postponed from Tuesday evening to Wednesday.
Many in the party are rallying behind efforts that would give McHenry more power to act as a temporary Speaker, expanding a role otherwise appears to be largely dedicated to organizing the process of electing a new Speaker.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) — who has pledged to continue to vote for McCarthy for Speaker — told reporters Tuesday that moves to further empower McHenry have gained momentum, “as they should.”
“If it’s gonna take us a while to get to a Speaker, then yeah, we need to give Patrick McHenry some of those powers and allow the House to conduct its business. We don’t want a government shutdown,” he said.
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), who declined to back Jordan, introduced a resolution that would force a vote to elect McHenry as Speaker pro tem until the government funding deadline of Nov. 17 or until a new Speaker is elected — giving him more authority than in his current status as an appointee to the role.
“This is another distraction from us getting the work done that we need to get done,” Kelly said Monday of the booting of McCarthy.
“This gives us the ability to take the curse off of what we’re doing right now.”
His move comes after a letter from the Republican Governance Group last week likewise encouraging some sort of expansion of McHenry’s role.
One of the group’s members, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), who voted for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), said he was open to moves that would keep the House running.
“We should, at least in the meantime, look for a way to move our agenda forward. I think that’s a very prudent, smart move,” Diaz-Balart said, shortly before calling for a second vote Tuesday for a House Speaker.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who has said he will not back Jordan, said he would support a resolution for “a 30-day Speaker,” calling McHenry a logical choice for handling “urgent” issues such as supplemental funding for Israel and Ukraine.
“There is other business that we need to get done in terms of spending and making sure that we keep the government open,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC.
And Gimenez suggested the role itself needs to be more clearly defined.
“Look, it’s not just about this situation now, it’s about in the future. If we have an incapacitated Speaker of the House in the future due to illness or injury or whatever, this place can’t stop working. So we need to fix that problem. That’s an inherent problem inside the House,” he said.
Still, it faces apparent resistance from McHenry and others in the conference.
“I’ve spoken with Patrick several times about this. And I asked him, does he want this? Does he want to do this? And just said to me, ‘Do you hate me that much?’” said Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.).
“So he’s been pretty consistent. He doesn’t want it.”
Others have expressed hesitation that placing more power in McHenry’s hands would undercut the pressure to find a new Speaker.
“We don’t need to take any pressure off of our conference to come to a final conclusion on a permanent Speaker, no pressure taken off of our conference to be any less motivated as a result of giving powers to a temporary Speaker pro tem,” Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told The Hill late last week.
But Kelly sees it differently — a relief for those eager to see the government up and running even if they’re not eager to back Jordan.
“All it does is take the pressure off those that are ‘no’s,’ because they’re gonna get crucified back home. They’re gonna get crucified,” he said.
One House Republican said he didn’t think ending the paralysis of the House would stymie the search for a Speaker, as the pressure to select a leader and get back to work are rapidly becoming equal priorities.
“Having not been successful in identifying one, that tension is now merging, where getting the House open and functioning is equally important to the Republicans identifying and electing a Speaker, and that’s why I don’t think it necessarily does that,” the GOP lawmaker said.
Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), who did back Jordan, said he did not think the House was yet at the standstill needed to justify a move.
“We probably might have to do something very limited, very temporary if there is really, truly an impasse. Otherwise, we’ve got a duty and responsibility to keep moving ahead. And if some people think that the Speaker pro tem should be empowered, well then he should just run, and they should nominate him and have him run,” Huizenga said.
And Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), another longtime Jordan backer, said he doesn’t know that a resolution to expand McHenry’s role would be able to secure enough votes.
“There are members who do not want to invest powers in the Speaker pro tem, and it’s not against Patrick McHenry. I have great respect for him. I do not believe we should empower the Speaker pro tem no matter who that person is. We have one responsibility now. That’s electing a Speaker of the House. Then, our second responsibility is going through the appropriations process to fund this government,” he said.
But supporters of the effort see expanding McHenry’s power as one of the few ways to ensure the House addresses its responsibilities
“Until we can find clear consensus among the Republican conference,” Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) wrote on X. “It’s time to give expanded authority to Speaker Pro Tempore McHenry so the House can resume governing.”
Emily Brooks, Aris Folley and Mychael Schnell contributed.
Updated at 6:58 p.m. ET