At press time, the US House of Representatives was in a historic deadlock in its process for choosing a Speaker for the 118th Congress, a quagmire that could lead lawmakers to delay committee hearings.
As of January 4, California Representative Kevin McCarthy lost the fifth round of votes to become the next Speaker of the House after Republicans seized majority control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections. This marked a rare occurrence: only 15 times in the entire history of Congress since 1789, when more than one round of voting was required to determine a Speaker, and there was no end in sight.
Without a Speaker elected by the majority of members voting for a candidate in the House, the governing body cannot function effectively. New legislators cannot be sworn in, the House cannot adopt rules to determine how the chamber will operate, and committee assignments and legislation will not advance. The last time this happened was in 1923, when there were nine rounds of voting before deciding on a Speaker.
In December, the House Financial Services Committee called a hearing to explore the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. The committee's jurisdiction includes economic stabilization, as well as money and credit issues, which likely contribute to its leadership. Introducing Bills on Crypto and the body that conducts hearings related to the regulation of digital assets.
Yet without elected House leadership, second in line for the US presidential succession, no less, efforts to address allegations of fraud at FTX or advance legislation that offers regulatory clarity for companies encryption can be delayed indefinitely. After five rounds of voting for a president, Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has consistently won 212 votes, while McCarthy's total of 200 votes has failed to win a majority among the voting members of the House. In each round, about 19 or 20 Republicans voted for Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan or other candidates.
In a sense, the office of Secretary of the House of Representatives was one of the only persons authorized to preside over the house without an elected Speaker. However, this is unlikely to result in any political decisions, as Secretary of the House Cheryl Johnson's duties are primarily administrative. The whole situation is largely unprecedented.
Related: 100 Crypto Lobbyists Prepare for the Fight of Their Lives as Congress Resumes
Representative Patrick McHenry, the next Chairman of the House Financial Services Committeesaid in December that the body planned to hold another hearing on the FTX collapse sometime in 2023. The US Senate, not overshadowed by the same divisions as the House, began swearing in lawmakers on January 3 .
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