WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lawmakers on Capitol Hill narrowly avoided a government shutdown Saturday but this week, they voted to remove Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House.
The historic move came after the congressman changed course abruptly and helped pass a continuing resolution to keep the government open until November 17.
Legislative work has come to a halt with the gavel up for grabs and, though extended, the deadline to fund the government fully still looms.
FOX 17 talked with West Michigan Republican Congressman Bill Huizenga who voted to keep McCarthy in office.
He called the move “unnecessary and unwise,” adding that whoever does take McCarthy’s place as Speaker of the House needs to be someone who can unify lawmakers.
“What I’ve been hearing from folks back home, even people who were not Kevin McCarthy fans, who were not fans of my vote for him for speaker, have said, come back to me and said, ‘this is chaos. This is not healthy. This is not good for us at all, and we’ve got to find that path forward,’ so that’s what we’re trying to do,” Huizenga told FOX 17.
We also talked with Democratic Congresswoman Hillary Scholten who said it has been a “somber” couple of days in Washington.
She said McCarthy’s removal was not something Democrats were excited about, adding that Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries did not force anyone to vote one way or the other.
Ultimately, she decided to vote to remove McCarthy because she says he couldn’t be trusted.
“I had seen, even in my first nine months in office, you know, him go back on promises he had made. We had to renegotiate deals that were made because he refused to honor his end of the bargain,” Congresswoman Scholten explained. “This has consequences for the American people, for the people of West Michigan, taking us into the brink of the financial cliff, almost defaulting on our debt, almost shutting the government down.”
Neither Huizenga nor Scholten would name their pick for McCarthy’s replacement.
Congresswoman Scholten did suggest her Republican colleagues to consider a Democrat for the position because there’s such a close divide with only five more Republicans than Democrats in the House.
Meanwhile, Congressman Huizenga suggested someone either in a leadership role currently, like Elise Stefanik, Steve Scalise or Tom Emmer, or someone not in a leadership role, like Jim Jordan or Kevin Hern.
Now, Congressman Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is serving as the interim Speaker.
So far, both Jordan of Ohio and House Majority Leader Scalise have announced their intentions to run for the position.
There will be a candidate forum before votes are brought to the House floor to allow speaker hopefuls the opportunity to address their colleagues.
Full voting will not take place until next Tuesday at the earliest.
