‘Solemn and sober’: Nevada’s legislators on what’s next after McCarthy ouster
After the U.S. House of Representatives made history Tuesday when it voted to remove Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the federal legislative branch is now under pressure to elect its new leader as another possibility of a government shutdown looms.
Nevada’s Democratic congressional representatives — Steven Horsford, Susie Lee and Dina Titus — voted to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy yesterday, while Republican Rep. Mark Amodei voted against the motion to vacate McCarthy.
The Republican Conference is scheduled to hold a candidate forum next Tuesday where candidates — including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio — will have the opportunity to present their qualifications and goals.
Amodei said in a statement he looks forward to supporting a speaker who will provide aggressive oversight of the executive branch and get the House back to the work of governing.
The longtime Nevada Republican legislator said he is interested in learning about candidates’ willingness to change the motion to vacate rule to require a larger consensus before it can be brought to the House floor for a vote. He called the current rule, which allows a single person to hold up regular order and bring up a motion to vacate the speaker, untenable.
“If something doesn’t change, we’ll be spinning the wheels here for the next 15 months every time someone decides they disagree with the speaker or need to juice their fundraising numbers,” Amodei said.
‘Moment of chaos and dysfunction’
On Monday, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who is part of a group of hard-right Republican legislators who have opposed McCarthy’s leadership since he took the role in January, introduced a motion to vacate the speaker. Eight Republicans joined Democrats Tuesday to oust the speaker.
On the verge of a government shutdown last weekend, McCarthy struck a last-minute deal with Democrats to extend the funding deadline by 45 days. Gaetz and his group had demanded deep cuts to the federal budget, and he warned he would call for McCarthy’s removal if he worked with Democrats on a funding extension.
The House Republican infighting prevents Congress from getting back to work, said Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., and Nevadans can’t afford another day without a governing Congress.
“The fact remains that in a divided Congress, nothing will be accomplished without the support of both Democrats and Republicans,” Lee, a member of the House’s Problem Solvers Caucus, said in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “As House Republicans hold discussions to figure out their path forward, I hope that they will see this truth and be willing to move forward from the past nine months of dysfunction by bringing bipartisanship back to the House.”
Rep. Steven Horsford, R-Nev., said in a statement after the vote that this is a “solemn and sober” moment for the United States.
“I stand with my House colleagues to move us beyond this moment of chaos and dysfunction caused by extremist Republicans,” Horsford said.
Horsford said if Republicans are not ready to govern, they can step aside and allow Democrats to elect Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries as speaker.
“McCarthy could not be trusted to put the well-being of the country, the Congress, or my constituents in District One ahead of his own personal ambitions,” Titus said on X. “I voted in favor of the motion to vacate the Speakership and help restore trust, integrity and accountability to the House.”
Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hilyeah on X.
