After 15 ballots and turmoil in the houses of our government, the United States House of Representatives were able to elect Kevin McCarthy. The long drag out for electing a house speaker came with multiple votes to adjourn, many representatives voting neutral, and lots of frustration on the floors of Congress. The congress floor now having a speaker now is starting to stare at the rules committees and the specifics of the Congress elections that could be important for the next few years of speakers. Congress could have a major reshuffle in its rules in this coming year that sets up a new line of abilities for how elections may take place, with a possibility of fixing the problematic lines of voting in our Congress.

Congress’ rules could be changing forever, and it will have a major impact on not just the US Speaker of the House, but across the country’s voting systems. 

After four days of deliberation and voting, Rep. Kevin McCarthy won the Republican vote for Speaker of the House of the US Congress. The long stretch came with multiple apparent concessions and even personal talks with Rep. Matt Gaetz and Rep. Lauren Boebert on the floor of Congress. Many of the concessions and fights over how the Congress will govern under Rep. Kevin McCarthy, which after many deals and talks finally convinced enough folks. After careful talks on the floor the two Reps. finally presented their votes as Present, which allowed for the amount of votes needed for Rep. Kevin McCarthy to win the Speaker of the House. This long and drawn out voting process has seen a changing tide in how voting should be done in Congress abroad and many within have called for a change in rules. This change could be a major tide turn in how we see voting in our House and possibly spread to many parts of the US democracy. 

Many rules are in mire and hopeful to move past the debacle of what happened to Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the test for the rules of the house passed handily. New rules according to Politico and Reuters include many new rules such as the ability to call for the speaker’s removal at any time, restrictions on federal spending, and the revival of a 19th century rule called the Holman rule to amend spending bills in an aim to cut salaries or employees. Another major one from Politico is a switch from PAYGO to CUTGO, or a switch from mandatory taxes to offset deficit spending to deficit spending being met with equal or greater decreases in mandatory spending. These all could be major in how the speaker can negotiate with the current president on spending, how the country is taxed, and where the Holman rule could be applied across the country. New rules in the House of Representatives could be major in showing the tide of where the Republican party will take in a direction, but with a majority Democratic Senate everything is still up in the air for the US houses. 

Overall though the rules in the House are major in showing a new direction for the House in a Republican lens that could shape how voting and rules be taken in the future.