What about the Speaker of the House?

Mission Forge

By Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Maureen Chowdhury and Elise Hammond, CNN

Updated 10:06 p.m. ET, January 5, 2023

• The House has adjourned until noon Friday after Rep. Kevin McCarthy suffered a stinging 11th defeat in the race for House speaker.
• After three days of voting, this is now the longest speaker contest in 164 years.
• McCarthy has continued to negotiate with a group of hardline Republicans who've derailed his bid, proposing key concessions in his push to get more votes.
• About this process: A nominee needs 218 votes, but the number required could change if members withhold their votes. The House can't kick off the new Congress or swear in new members until a speaker is elected.

Opposition: Twenty Republican lawmakers, despite continued talks and concessions, have so far declined to support McCarthy. Republicans again nominated Rep. Byron Donalds for four of five of Thursday’s voting rounds. After getting a few votes on the eighth ballot, Rep. Kevin Hern was also officially nominated for the ninth, 10th and 11th rounds of voting. Notably, Rep. Matt Gaetz voted for former President Donald Trump during the seventh and eighth ballots, and he nominated the former president for speaker in the 11th ballot. Trump only received one vote in that round.

· “Motion to vacate”: In a series of new concessions first reported by CNN Wednesday night, McCarthy agreed to propose a rules change that would allow just one member to call for a vote to oust a sitting speaker, sources say. McCarthy had initially proposed a five-member threshold, down from current conference rules that require half of the GOP to call for such a vote.

· Other concessions: McCarthy also agreed to allow for more members of the Freedom Caucus to serve on the powerful House Rules Committee. While McCarthy’s allies are willing to swallow most of the deals, they are drawing a line in the sand over one issue: committee gavels for the holdouts. Later, in a meeting with moderates, McCarthy downplayed the concessions he’s made so far.

A historic floor fight: This is the longest speakership bid in more than 160 years. It took nine ballots for Rep. Frederick Gillett of Massachusetts to be elected speaker in 1923. And in 1849, the House had been in session so long without being able to elect a speaker – 19 days – that members voted to elect their speaker with a plurality rather than a majority. Members ultimately confirmed the plurality election with a majority vote.

NYT Jan. 5, 2023Updated 11:09 p.m. ET

Kevin McCarthy’s speakership bid failed for an 11th time, after his latest concessions failed to win over enough Republican hard-liners. The chamber has been deadlocked for three days and cannot move on to any other business until a speaker is chosen. Lawmakers will return at noon Friday.

11th Speaker Vote Tally »

| | Total | Dem. | Rep. | | | | | | Needed to win
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |

Note: To win, a member must receive the majority of votes cast for a person, not counting “present” votes. The Constitution specifies that House members choose the speaker, but the speaker does not have to be a current or even a former representative.

After a humiliating three-day stretch of 11 consecutive defeats in an election that is now the most protracted such contest since 1859, Mr. McCarthy dispatched his emissaries to hammer out a deal with the ultraconservative rebels, including agreeing to conditions he had previously refused to countenance in a last-ditch effort to sway a critical mass of defectors.

They included allowing a single lawmaker to force a snap vote at any time to oust the speaker, a rule that would effectively codify a standing threat that Mr. McCarthy would be at the mercy of the right wing at all times, and could be removed instantly if he crossed them.

As he left the House floor on Thursday night, Mr. McCarthy said that the negotiations had yielded “a little movement” and denied that the concessions he had offered would undermine his speakership.

“Has it undercut the power of all the other speakers?” he replied, after a reporter asked whether allowing for a snap vote for his removal would weaken him. “So why would it cut mine? It’d only be a weaker speaker if I was afraid of it.”

In fact, the specter of such a vote allowed right-wing lawmakers to push out John A. Boehner, the Ohio Republican, from the speakership in 2015, and the threat hung heavily over his successor, Paul D. Ryan, during his tenure.

The Republican leader had also committed to allowing the right-wing faction to pick a third of the party’s members on the powerful Rules Committee, which controls what legislation reaches the floor and in what form, according to a person who has been involved in the talks, who described them on condition of anonymity. Mr. McCarthy also said he would open government spending bills to a freewheeling debate in which any lawmaker could force votes on proposed changes, including those designed to scuttle or sink the measure.

The rebels have agitated for that change in an effort to give greater power over the federal purse strings to rank-and-file lawmakers, rather than the senior leaders who normally have carte blanche over such legislation. It could make it all but impossible to pass a spending bill in the House, leading to a government shutdown.

by The Hill staff - 01/05/23 8:09 PM ET

Lawmakers are still in negotiations but are touting progress.

The result will bring the House Speakership fight to a 12th ballot, tying it for the fifth-longest in history. The House will reconvene at noon on Friday.

Conservative holdouts mum on p...