House Republicans Struggle to Find Speaker as Democrats Propose Expansion of Speaker Pro Tempore’s Power

House Republicans are facing a difficult task in their search for a new speaker of the House of Representatives. After the first nominee, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, was ousted 10 days ago, the party has been unable to find a suitable replacement.

On Friday, a small group of moderate Democrats called for the expansion of the power of Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, as House Republicans take the weekend to see if their second speaker nominee in three days, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, can win over the dozens of lawmakers in his own party who are blocking his path to the speakership.

At a press conference on the steps of the Capitol, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said of Jordan, “House Republicans have selected as their nominee to be the speaker of the people’s House the chairman of the chaos caucus, a defender in a dangerous way of dysfunction, and an extremist extraordinaire.”

Four Democrats, all members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, wrote to McHenry to propose that until a speaker is elected, his authority should be temporarily increased to bring specific legislation to the House floor. Democrats are standing firm in their refusal to bail out the House Republican majority as it struggles to elect a new speaker.

The power struggle between House Republicans and Democrats is ongoing, and it remains to be seen who will be the next speaker of the House of Representatives. In the meantime, the Democrats’ proposal to expand the power of Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry is an interesting development in the ongoing saga.