The GOP’s infighting and inability to elect a House speaker means the lower chamber cannot get to work, potentially delaying crucial legislation

The repeated failures by House Republicans to elect a new speaker are making the federal government more likely to shut down next month, as the GOP’s weeks-long internal dysfunction threatens to delay vital legislation.

The House has been mostly closed for business since Oct. 3, when a band of far-right rebels ousted then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Republicans since have not coalesced around a replacement, running through multiple options without electing anyone. Without a speaker, lawmakers can’t bring bills to the floor.

Policy discussions have ground to a halt, even as war has broken out in Israel and federal funding is weeks away from expiring. Congress has until Nov. 17 to approve a deal to fund the government, or members of the military risk missing paychecks, national parks will close and the Internal Revenue Service will run shoestring operations.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They know they are going to get blamed for the shutdown regardless. It would be much better for it to be because they wanted “to elect a strong conservative to drain the swamp over the objections of the RINOs” and not “National parks are closed because Republicans wanted to defund social security and democrats said no.”

    • PizzaMan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They’re going to blame democrats for not voting for a moderate republican, even though republicans are the ones who can’t get their act together and elect somebody who isn’t pro-sedition.