The epic three week search for a new speaker of the house has finally come to an anticlimactic end. The search started on October fourth when former speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out as speaker of the house the vote went down to 216-210 not in McCathy’s favor making him the first speaker to ever be voted out in U.S. history.

The house of representatives went without a speaker of the house for about three weeks. Not having a speaker is a problem because without one the house is unable to effectively function rendering our government in a sort of limbo state one of the main issues was the inability to pass bills. a speaker tempore was appointed however that tempore has very limited powers.

Three weeks worth of nominees trying to get elected to the speaker position including one Jim Jordan, a representative from Ohio who tried to get elected three times to the position and failed three times. Before Jordan the only other notable nominee was Steve Scalise who dropped out on October 12. The failure to consolidate around a single chosen speaker shows the splintering within the GOP.

“It’s honestly sad seeing how fractured our government is to the point where a party can’t even agree with itself,” FHS junior Alex Houch said.

On October 25 Representative Mike Johnson from Louisanna was elected to the speaker position. As a house representative Mike Johnson was relatively unknown now he’s second in line with the presidency. Johnson’s first act as speaker is to pass a stand alone aid bill to support Israel. The proposed aid bill would send roughly $14.3 billion to Israel and Israel alone. This bill is unpopular among many of the democrats because it sends no aid to Ukraine and cuts IRS funding.

“ I think for what the country he’s the best we can get right now, all we need is a united congress, for what we need he’s the best option,” FHS junior Grayson Hopkins said.

Whether or not the bill will pass is unknown at the time of writing this however it is expected to be voted on sometime this week. Many people are worried that the new speaker is quote on quote too far right in his beliefs but no matter what kind of speaker he’ll be or if he’ll even last as the speaker our government just got a lot more interesting.

WC: 375