Republicans turn to 2023 with narrow House majority : NPR

Table Of Content

• Republicans’ House majority is their smallest in decades, and shrinking
• How many Republicans are in the House? Majority and Democrat seats explained.
• Public Policy
• All the Stars Attending the 2024 White House Correspondents' Dinner, Hosted by Colin Jost
• Republicans turn to 2023 with narrow House majority
• Who controls the Senate? Breaking down the party division in the 118th US Congress.

In 2020, federal courts blocked an executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump to ban TikTok after the company sued on the grounds that the order violated free speech and due process rights. His administration brokered a deal that would have had U.S. corporations Oracle and Walmart take a large stake in TikTok. The sale never went through for a number of reasons; one was China, which imposed stricter export controls on its technology providers. The company has good reason to think a legal challenge could be successful, having seen some success in previous legal fights over its operations in the U.S..

Republicans’ House majority is their smallest in decades, and shrinking

House Republicans have cited the issue as a piece of their legislative agenda, arguing that the government is getting in the way of innovation and business. Democrats, meanwhile, have suggested that reforms are important to help put funding from green energy proposals and legislation like the infrastructure bill to use more quickly. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has made permitting reform one of his chief priorities as well, in order to approve the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline in his home state of West Virginia. “If you’re going to give a person a higher limit, wouldn’t you first say you should change your behavior, so you just don’t keep raising and all the time? Some conservative House Republicans have signaled that they’re interested in more aggressive demands including possible cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Other policies that Democrats have been unable to pass during their tenure, including an expanded child tax credit, could come up again, though most are set to have a tough time making more progress because of House Republican resistance.

How many Republicans are in the House? Majority and Democrat seats explained.

Among them is Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, a close Trump ally, who said on Tuesday that he would oppose Mr. McCarthy on the floor in January and that there was “a critical mass” of similar McCarthy opponents. The political dynamics in Washington in 2023 will be very different with Republicans leading the House. The slenderness of the new Republican majority has raised questions about both Mr. McCarthy’s ability to take the speaker’s gavel in January and his ability to govern, as a far-right faction is already making demands of him. Still, there is a saying in Congress that the only number that matters in the House is 218 — and Republicans will enter 2023 with at least that many votes, ushering in a new era of divided government. Of the six remaining uncalled House races, Republicans were ahead in four and Democrats were leading in two.

Public Policy

Rep. Mike Johnson, the newly-elected Speaker of the House, is also a Louisiana Republican. Santos' expulsion left a vacancy, which was filled in a special election that Democrat Tom Suozzi won, narrowing the Republicans' majority even more. From "What are the requirements to be president?" to "Who's running for president?" to "Is Election Day a federal holiday?" − we're striving to find answers to the most common questions you ask every day. On Oct. 3, McCarthy was voted out as speaker, becoming the first speaker in U.S. history to be removed from the role during a legislative session. Former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, was the speaker of the House from Jan. 7 to Oct. 3, 2023. It took 15 rounds of voting to elect McCarthy into the position, the first time in more than a century that the process of electing a speaker took more than one ballot.

General elections are often the focal point of election-year media coverage as they determine control of elected offices up and down the ballot. Primary elections, however, can provide insight on future elections as they help dictate the direction each party takes. Nonetheless, the departures underscore the dire position the party finds itself in, particularly as prominent conservatives argue that Republicans have nothing to show for their time in the majority so far.

All the Stars Attending the 2024 White House Correspondents' Dinner, Hosted by Colin Jost

With a Senate under Democratic control, Mr. Biden will continue to be able to have his cabinet and judicial appointments confirmed, including any potential Supreme Court vacancies. In the House, Republicans will now have broad subpoena power to initiate investigations into the Biden administration, and Mr. McCarthy has signaled that they are eager to do so. Additional reporting by Sarah Cahalan, Catie Edmondson and Rachel Shorey.

Conservatives’ bona fides hinged less on their voting records, and more on their fealty to him. But many of those bills amounted to political messaging tools that would stand no chance of passage in a Democratic-controlled Senate. And some of the votes happened because House members defied the speaker and forced them against his wishes, like a resolution to impeach Mr. Biden over his border policies and a move to censure Representative Adam B. Schiff of California and fine him $16 million.

No end in sight for GOP chaos ahead of divisive speaker’s race - CNN

No end in sight for GOP chaos ahead of divisive speaker’s race.

Posted: Sat, 07 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

The Moderate Republicans cluster is a group of 39 members who break more often than others from the majority of their party on both substantive policy and partisan messaging, with the goal of finding consensus across the aisle. For example, 89 percent of the cluster voted in favor of a September 2023 bill to provide security assistance to Ukraine, compared to 38 percent of all other Republicans. Unsurprisingly, Problem Solvers Caucus Co-chair Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania is in this group, along with 17 others from the caucus — two-thirds of the group’s GOP members. Take the annual appropriations process, which has become something of an exercise in partisan posturing and brinksmanship. Forty-five percent of the Moderate Republicans cluster broke ranks with the party to tank this bill’s passage.

We analyzed voting patterns to see if members actually vote with their caucuses.

Lawmakers had failed to act despite efforts to protect children online, safeguard users’ privacy and make companies more liable for content posted on their platforms, among other measures. But the TikTok ban reflects widespread concerns from lawmakers about China. TikTok has lobbied hard against the legislation, pushing the app’s 170 million U.S. users — many of whom are young — to call Congress and voice opposition. But the ferocity of the pushback angered lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where there is broad concern about Chinese threats to the U.S. and where few members use the platform themselves.

Special elections will be held during the 118th Congress to replace members of Congress who leave office for any reason. Democratic control of the Senate ensures that whatever agenda Mr. McCarthy and the Republicans push through is likely to be dead on arrival in the upper chamber. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic majority leader, has called his chamber the “firewall” against Republican priorities. “To believe that Kevin McCarthy is going to be speaker, you have to believe he’s going to get votes in the next six weeks that he couldn’t get in the last six years,” Mr. Gaetz said. Among Republicans, finger-pointing over the party’s shortcomings, in both the House and Senate, had already begun in earnest.

US House Republicans nominate Jim Jordan for speaker, testing hardline appeal - Reuters

US House Republicans nominate Jim Jordan for speaker, testing hardline appeal.

Posted: Sat, 14 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

As Sinema alluded to, immigration reform is also an issue that remains on the table, with Democrats interested in prioritizing DACA recipients, and Republicans looking to beef up resources along the border. It’s long been a subject that lawmakers have struggled with in Congress, though they’ve said they hope to keep working at it. One of these is permitting reform, which would expedite federal permit approvals for fossil fuel projects as well as clean energy projects, enabling them to get completed more quickly.

Before the election, Democrats held 36 of the open seats up for election, Republicans held 27, and five were newly created seats. As a result of the 2022 elections, Democrats won 30 of those seats, and Republicans won 38. Five of the chamber's six non-voting members were up for election as well. I’d expect the fissures between these groups to become more noticeable as long as Republicans hold onto a narrow majority in the House.