LYCOMING COUNTY, Pa. — For the first time in history, the United States House Speaker has been ousted. This comes after 216 Representatives voted to remove Kevin McCarthy from the position. Newswatch 16 stopped by Lycoming College to speak with Dr. Ben Kantack, a political science professor.
"Speakers have resigned before, but this is the first time we have used this particular tool and successfully ousted a speaker," he said.
In January, it took 15 voting rounds before McCarthy was elected. This was due to some Republicans not seeing eye-to-eye. Because of this, McCarthy made several deals that weakened his position.
"One of those weakening deals was that any member could sort of start a motion to vacate. It just took one person to call a vote to maybe oust the speaker," Kantack stated.
That person was Republican Representative Matt Gaetz. Gaetz and seven other Republicans were not happy with the resolution passed to avoid the government shutdown in September, and that prompted the vote.
"Currently, we have a speaker pro tempore, which is a temporary speaker. They are in recess right now, but next week they plan to meet again to start electing a new speaker, and what happens after that, we are not sure," added Kantack.
There will be long-term effects if a speaker is not elected in a quick manner. Government spending and passing legislation will be delayed. This also means a government shutdown could happen next month.
"That is really important because the resolution that was passed to avoid the shutdown isn't going to last forever; it is scheduled to expire in November," he said. "If something else isn't put into place before then, then we could have a shutdown just later than we thought."
Speaker candidates will need to receive 218 votes or a majority of votes from lawmakers who are present during the voting period. The Republican party owns the majority of seats in the House.
Check out WNEP’s YouTube channel.