WASHINGTON: Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was sworn in on Saturday as speaker of the House of Representatives in the 118th Congress.

McCarthy was elected early Saturday morning after a series of deadlocks and intense bargaining set a new record of 15 rounds of voting in four days. The bargaining gave the 20-member conservative Freedom Caucus the powers to unseat the speaker and paralyse governance if they wished to do so.

This was the longest speaker contest in 164 years. And it was already past midnight when the Republican candidate finally won the contest with 216 votes against 212 of his Democratic rival Hakeem Jeffries.

The number 216 was still two short of the required simple majority of 218 votes, but five intentional abstentions reduced the threshold. The House has a total of 435 members: 222 Republicans and 212 Democrats. One seat is vacant. The abstentions also allowed some conservatives to help Mr. McCarthy get elected without having to vote for him.

Although it was already past midnight when voting for the 15th, and the final round ended, the proceedings continued till Saturday morning to hold the swearing-in ceremony. The newly elected members of Congress were also sworn-in after McCarthy.

“Now the hard work begins,” the new speaker said in his first address to the House. “What we do here today, next week, next month, next year, will set the tone for everything that follows.”

His Democratic rival Hakeem Jeffries also made history as the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress. He is now the minority leader in the House where each of the 212 Democrats voted for him in all but one of the 15 rounds. In the 11th round, one Democrat had to leave the House for a minor surgery.

“We do extend our hand of partnership to you,” Jeffries said to the new speaker in his acceptance speech. “We intend to try to find common ground whenever and wherever possible.”

But he also took a swipe at the Republicans, saying that the Democrats will put “maturity over Mar-a-Lago,” where former President Donald Trump resides in Palm Beach, Florida.

McCarthy had said in his acceptance speech that Trump helped him win the speakership. “He was with me from the beginning … would call me and call others … helping get those final votes.” McCarthy’s election followed a chaotic night on the House floor, including an extraordinary confrontation between him and Matt Gaetz of the “Never Kevin” coalition, during the 14th round of voting. One of McCarthy’s supporters, Mike Rogers, lunged at Gaetz but was pulled back by his colleagues.

The US media reported that McCarthy’s ascension after 14 defeats followed a string of concessions to his ultraconservative opponents.

One change empowers a single lawmaker to launch the process of ousting the Speaker, which could cripple the functions of the lower chamber.

Democrats warn that hardline conservatives could use it repeatedly to browbeat the speaker into keeping the bills they dislike off the floor.

The conservatives have also been promised budgetary powers and seats in key House committees. This increases the risk of shuttering the government and defaulting on federal debts as the hardliners have already declared their plans to refuse funds to the Biden administration. President Joe Biden is a Democrat.

“We believe there ought to be specific, concrete limits on spending attached to a debt ceiling increase,” said one of the conservatives, Chip Roy. “There will be no clean debt ceiling increase, that’s for sure,” said Scott Perry.

“If they do the debt ceiling, we’re screwed,” a Democratic lawmaker told reporters on Friday, adding that such cuts hurt the nation’s safety net programs for the common people.

A House controlled by ultraconservatives will also have confrontations with the Senate, which is still controlled by the Democrats. And observers fear that their clash would further weaken governance.

Now that a House speaker has been selected and members have finally been sworn in, the chamber can move to picking back up business and organising Republican-led committees.

Passing a new set of House rules is top on their agenda. But the Republicans will be limited in their ability to pass bills through Congress with Democrats in control of the Senate and the White House.

In an interview to CNN, McCarthy left the door open to launching eventual impeachment proceedings against the president, which some of his members have already begun to call for. President Biden, however, can exercise veto power over legislation. Still, House Republicans will be able to push messaging bills that highlight their agenda.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2023