A historic drama is going on right now in the House of Representatives. On October 3rd, McCarthy was removed as the Speaker of the House, a nation-first incident for the United States, after Representative Matt Gaetz set an application for McCarthy to vacate the office. All the Democrats representatives along with eight Republicans representatives voted for his removal, leaving the vote at 216-210 for McCarthy to be removed from office. Seven members did not vote.

But why is that such a big deal and what does the Speaker do that makes this so significant? The Speaker of the House gets elected every two years by the House of Representatives. The Speaker of the House also elects the President in the case of an Electoral College tie. Additionally, they set the House’s legislative agenda, control committee assignments, set voting/work calendars, and are responsible for keeping their party members unified behind major initiatives as well.

In this absence of a leader for the House of Representatives, legislation and law-making are affected in many ways. Agendas can’t be set and the debates between the 435 representatives in the House aren’t moderated by an overarching authority. Speakers of the House are also responsible for counting votes, which can lead to disastrous issues in passing legislation for presidential approval without an established Speaker in place. All this leaves the House of Representatives in disarray without the organization and decisions provided by a Speaker.

Luckily the House already voted for a new Speaker of the House on October 25th, 2023, with Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, receiving enough votes to take office. Given that this situation is entirely unprecedented, Johnson’s actions will likely become the standard for any similar situations in the future. And with political tensions continuing to inflate, legislative balance only becomes more important to maintain.