{"id":37562,"date":"2023-10-05T02:03:28","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T20:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37562"},"modified":"2025-04-22T23:30:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T18:00:20","slug":"kevin-mccarthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/kevin-mccarthy\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin McCarthy becomes the first Speaker ever to be ousted from the Office"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Speaker of the United States House of Representatives<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is a Speaker of the House?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the role of the Speaker?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why is the Speaker of the House so important?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How is a Speaker chosen?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Removal of the speaker of the House<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary: Kevin McCarthy becomes the first Speaker ever to be ousted from the Office<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Acting speaker after McCarthy\u2019s removal<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the job by a handful of hand-liner Republican leaders.\n<ul>\n<li>These leaders criticised McCarthy for mishandling government spending and budget fights since the GOP took over the House in January.<\/li>\n<li>They also accused McCarthy of cutting a secret side deal with US President Joe Biden on providing additional funding to Ukraine.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>This is the <strong>first time ever that a House Speaker has lost a no-confidence vote<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>The final tally stood at 216-210, with eight Republicans voting with 208 Democrats.<\/li>\n<li>This marked the end of McCarthy\u2019s tumultuous nine-month-long leadership of the Republican majority in the lower chamber of Congress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Speaker of the United States House of Representatives<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2><strong>What is a Speaker of the House?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The US Constitution established the role of Speaker of the House, which oversees the lower chamber of Congress.<\/li>\n<li>The Speaker is both traditionally and historically a sitting member of the majority party, though this is not a constitutional requirement.<\/li>\n<li>Therefore, in addition to leading the House of Representatives, they are also leader of the majority party in the chamber.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the role of the Speaker?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2023\/10\/5\/12\/51\/58\/651e64166ea8102962c277dd_OI.PNG\" \/><\/li>\n<li>At a practical level, the Speaker:\n<ul>\n<li>sets the House&#8217;s legislative agenda,<\/li>\n<li>controls committee assignments,<\/li>\n<li>sets the vote and work calendar, and<\/li>\n<li>is responsible for keeping their party members unified behind major initiatives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The Speaker is <u>second in line for the presidency<\/u>, following the Vice-President, in the event of the President being incapable of continuing in office.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why is the Speaker of the House so important?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Depending on the partisan makeup of Congress, they can make or break a US president&#8217;s agenda, stymie opposition, and spearhead their party&#8217;s biggest legislative initiatives.<\/li>\n<li>A shrewd and effective Speaker will be able to marshal their members behind their party&#8217;s agenda, and control rebellious lawmakers by doling out incentives or punishments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How is a Speaker chosen?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>No House without a speaker<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The House of Representatives functions on a two-year cycle, known as a &#8220;session.&#8221;\n<ul>\n<li>The mid-term elections were held in the United States on 8 November, 2022.<\/li>\n<li><u>The new Congress began on 3 January 2023<\/u> and Republicans will be in the majority.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The very first thing a new session of the House of Representatives must do is vote for a Speaker of the House.<\/li>\n<li>Without that person in place, the chamber cannot move on to any other function, including swearing-in members.<\/li>\n<li>The chamber must continue to hold votes until a Speaker is elected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nomination for Speaker<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In the weeks after an election, the Republican conference and the Democratic caucus hold an informal vote among their members.\n<ul>\n<li>This voting is done to decide who they want to nominate to lead their party.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><u>But members are not obligated to vote for the party&#8217;s chosen candidate<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>While it has been the tradition for the speaker candidate to be a member of the House, <strong>it is not required<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Voting<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The vote for Speaker requires a candidate to receive the support of a majority of the House &#8211; 218 votes (out of the 435 members of the House).<\/li>\n<li>The existing leader of the majority party is usually presumed to be the person to assume the speakership.<\/li>\n<li>For more than a century, the Speaker of the House was decided on the first vote.\n<ul>\n<li>However, this time, a record-making 15 voting rounds were conducted before McCarthy succeeded in acquiring the Speaker\u2019s gavel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Removal of the speaker of the House<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Under the newly adopted rule (in January 2023), <u>any single member of the House could offer a <\/u><strong><u>privileged resolution<\/u><\/strong><u> declaring the Office of Speaker vacant<\/u>.\n<ul>\n<li>The term \u201cprivileged\u201d refers to a matter that has precedence over regular House business.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Procedural votes could be offered to slow down the motion, but when it does come to the floor, it would need only a <u>simple majority of the House \u2014 or 218 members currently \u2014 to pass<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary: Kevin McCarthy becomes the first Speaker ever to be ousted from the Office<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The United States House of Representatives has removed its speaker, a Republican, for the first time in the body\u2019s 234-year history.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Acting speaker after McCarthy\u2019s removal<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Republican Representative Patrick McHenry, a McCarthy ally, was temporarily appointed acting speaker.<\/li>\n<li>He can only serve for a very limited time \u2013 <u>up to three legislative days in this case<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>The acting speaker temporary duties are vague. According to a guide to the chamber\u2019s rules and procedures:\n<ul>\n<li>That person may exercise such authorities of the office of speaker as may be necessary and appropriate pending the election of a speaker or speaker pro tempore.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1)<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>What is US Congress?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The US Congress is made up of two parts &#8211; the House of Representatives and the Senate. There are total of 535 Members of Congress &#8211; 100 serve in the U.S. Senate and 435 serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Control of these two houses is decided by the midterm election.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)\u00a0<\/strong><strong>How long do members of Congress\u2019 terms last?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms and are considered for reelection every second year. Senators however, serve six-year terms and elections to the Senate are staggered over even years so that only about 1\/3 of the Senate is up for reelection during any election.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-global\/kevin-mccarthy-us-house-speaker-removed-8968080\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>How Republican leader McCarthy became the first ever US House Speaker to be removed from office<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/congress\/speaker-of-the-house-ousted-motion-to-vacate-rcna64902\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>NBC News<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/10\/4\/explainer-what-next-after-us-speaker-of-the-house-kevin-mccarthy-removed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>ALJAZEERA<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/international\/mccarthy-becomes-the-first-speaker-ever-to-be-ousted-from-the-job-in-a-house-vote\/article67377623.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>The Hindu<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US House Speaker oversees the working of the lower chamber of Congress i.e., House of Representatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}