1) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the New Congress Starting Today and the Election for Speaker.
That’s why everyone has to show up at noon today.
This poses an interesting, ethical question:
Here’s what to expect in the House today.
Nothing has constituted the House at that point. There is no Speaker. Clerk of the House Cheryl Johnson presides.
Under normal circumstances, all 435 House members-elect would crowd into the chamber to vote electronically and record their presence.
Members are instructed to report to the chamber, record their presence and depart. We expect it will take until a little after 2 pm et to get the quorum there.
We expect the election of the Speaker sometime between 5:30 and 6 pm et.
The House should start at 432 members and three vacancies: 222 Democrats and 210 Republicans.
This is where it could get interesting.
Period.
Nothing can happen in the House until it elects a Speaker.
Nothing.
The successful Speaker candidate secures an outright majority of the entire House. Not the most votes.
That’s why some wonder if it could possible for the House to elect McCarthy or someone else as Speaker.
That scenario is unlikely. But it will come down to the math.
More from Chad Pergram
More from Politics
My piece in the NY Times today: "the Trump administration is denying applications submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services at a rate 37 percent higher than the Obama administration did in 2016."
Based on this analysis: "Denials for immigration benefits—travel documents, work permits, green cards, worker petitions, etc.—increased 37 percent since FY 2016. On an absolute basis, FY 2018 will see more than about 155,000 more denials than FY 2016." https://t.co/Bl0naOO0sh
"This increase in denials cannot be credited to an overall rise in applications. In fact, the total number of applications so far this year is 2 percent lower than in 2016. It could be that the higher denial rate is also discouraging some people from applying at all.."
Thanks to @gsiskind for his insightful comments. The increase in denials, he said, is “significant enough to make one think that Congress must have passed legislation changing the requirements. But we know they have not.”
My conclusion:
Based on this analysis: "Denials for immigration benefits—travel documents, work permits, green cards, worker petitions, etc.—increased 37 percent since FY 2016. On an absolute basis, FY 2018 will see more than about 155,000 more denials than FY 2016." https://t.co/Bl0naOO0sh
"This increase in denials cannot be credited to an overall rise in applications. In fact, the total number of applications so far this year is 2 percent lower than in 2016. It could be that the higher denial rate is also discouraging some people from applying at all.."
Thanks to @gsiskind for his insightful comments. The increase in denials, he said, is “significant enough to make one think that Congress must have passed legislation changing the requirements. But we know they have not.”
My conclusion:
