John AdoyiAfter lots of back and forth, the Republican-dominated United States House of Representative has elected Mike Johnson as the new speaker of the house, bringing an end to a 3-week turbulence of in-house fighting within republicans after the ousting of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy on October 3.
Trouble in the house began when McCarthy, a prominent Republican leader, faced mounting challenges within his own party over his leadership style and handling of key legislative matters.
As a result, a group of Republican lawmakers initiated a motion to remove Congressman McCarthy from office. Ever since then, the house has been left without a formal speaker to preside over the house affairs.
Several republicans including Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the House majority leader, Rep. Austin Scott from Georgia, Jim Jordan and Rep. Tom Emmer, all vied for the position.
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However, none was able to secure the 215 benchmark to emerge speaker until Congressman Johnson did. Congressman Johnson, 51 from Louisiana, though without any house leadership experience, given that he came into the house in 2017, got 220 votes which was enough to secure him the gavel, making him the 56th speaker of the US congress.
After he emerged speaker, Johnson said “The people’s House is back in business”, adding that “We’re going to dispense with all the usual ceremonies and celebrations that traditionally follow a new speakership because we have no time for either one.
“The American people’s business is too urgent in this moment. The hour is late. The crisis is great.”
Johnson told his colleagues in the House that he has plans to put measures in place to avoid the US government shutdown of November 17.
He also promised to hit the ground running with proper legislations that will be beneficial to the house and the United States in general.
Congratulating Johnson on his election, US President Joe Biden said “that he looks forward to working together to find common ground on behalf of the American people.”
“We need to move swiftly to address our national security needs and to avoid a shutdown in 22 days. Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can,” the president said.
“This is a time for all of us to act responsibly, and to put the good of the American people and the everyday priorities of American families above any partisanship.”
This is the longest the US congress has gone without a speaker in the 21st century. In 1855, according to the Office of the Historian of the House of Representatives, the House went two months without a speaker.
With slavery and immigration as the divisive issues of the day, they voted 133 times before electing Nathaniel Banks.
According to reports, since 1913, there have been just five times when the US House of Reps. needed to pick a new leader during at the middle of the session.
Each time, it happened because the old leader either died or resigned. This time is special because it’s the first time they needed a new leader after ousting the previous one.
The coming months will be a test of Johnson’s leadership as he seeks to bring unity and direction to a party that has been marred by internal strife and confronts an array of pressing national and international issues including the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel-Hamas war.
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