Republican Kevin McCarthy was voted as House speaker early Saturday following significant compromises to right-wing hardliners to resolve the chamber's leadership chaos that paralyzed US Congress last week.
On the 14th and final ballot, as midnight approached, Representative Matt Gaetz refused to cast his vote, further humiliating the 57-year-old Californian and causing a confrontation from which fellow US House Republican Mike Rogers had to physically drag him away.
California Representative Kevin McCarthy's triumph on the 15th and final ballot, the worst congressional dysfunction in over 160 years came to an end. However, it demonstrated the challenges he will confront as leader of a divided majority, Reuters reported.
Ultimately, he triumphed by a score of 216 to 112. Six members of his own party abstained from voting, allowing him to be elected with fewer than half the House's votes.
McCarthy-Led House Will Scrutinize Biden Administration
McCarthy's first official act as speaker marked the end of the Democratic Party's two-house majority under President Joe Biden.
In his inaugural speech, Kevin McCarthy presented priorities that include trimming down government spending, immigration, and culture war. He emphasized that the foundation of US democracy is "checks and balances."
"It's time for us to be a check and provide some balance to the president's policies," the newly installed House Speaker said.
Kevin McCarthy's House leadership transpires at the US Congress several bills. According to AP News, these include bills to fund the government, rebuild a military whose resources have been depleted by decades of fighting and helping Ukraine, support farming, and raise the country's borrowing limit.
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Pres. Joe Biden will have to deal with a divided government for the first time in his presidency, as the Republicans have taken control of the House while the Democrats have a slim majority in the Senate.
The Republican holdouts frequently discuss the issue of congressional term limits as well as border security. Both of these measures are expected to be voted on by the end of the first quarter, as promised by McCarthy.
No matter what the holdouts demanded, the House was bound to rapidly address the immigration problem as strengthening border security and immigration laws have been at the forefront of the Republican agenda since Donald Trump's presidential campaign began in 2015, as per a report from the BBC.
Challenges of a Divided House
The implementation of term limits is a reform that would likely call for a change to the constitution. Attempts by individual states to limit the number of terms a member of Congress may serve in office have been deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court.
The parties in the US Congress can work together during a period of divided government to achieve major goals. However, this strategy typically ends in a standoff, a shutdown, or some other form of impasse.
In negotiations with the hard-liners over the previous week, Kevin McCarthy, who was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2006, was ultimately forced to restore the "motion to vacate the chair" to prevail over the dissenters, which experts view as something they can use constantly against McCarthy's US House leadership.
