House Speakership Battle Over For McCarthy, But War w/GOP Right To Continue

Following Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)'s election as Speaker of the House of Representatives early on the morning of 7 Jan, focus now turns to the new session of Congress and the ability (or lack thereof) of the new speaker to chart the course a legislative agenda given the extremely narrow margin of his winning the gavel.

• Winning through on the 15th round of voting, McCarthy made major concessions to the right-wing Freedom Caucus grouping of Republican representatives. This includes three seats on the powerful Rules Committee (which decides what legislation gets to the House floor and in what former) to members of the caucus, and the reintroduction of a one-member motion to vacate. The latter means that a single member of congress can trigger a vote on the speaker remaining in office.
• The first major hurdle for McCarthy is to get approval in the House today on the new package of rules that also threatens a reduction in defence spending. Some moderate Republican congressmen have hinted at potentially blocking the rules due to too many giveaways to the Trumpist right of the party. However, this seems unlikely given the chaos it would plunge the House back in to.
• The major challenge for McCarthy set to come later in the year with the debt ceiling vote, seen as likely to come in the early summer.