House To Meet Today Without Clear Plan For Speaker Vote

The House of Representatives will meet today at 12:00 ET 17:00 BST with a possibility of holding a roll call vote on the next speaker. GOP nominee, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), has no clear pathway to the 217 votes required to secure the gavel and that uncertainty suggests a vote today is unlikely.

• Republican leadership don't want to see a repeat of the politically damaging process in January which delivered former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to the chair. Scalise will likely chose to delay the vote to canvas for firm support in private.
• Note: Due to the GOP's thin majority Scalise can only drop four votes.
• Reports suggest that the hardcore anti-Scalise bloc could total up to 30 votes. Higher than the number former McCarthy had to overcome.
• There are factors working in Scalise’s favour: The GOP conference has fewer deep personal grievances with Scalise than with McCarthy.
• There is also a time crunch which wasn’t present in January. Congress must move to prevent a government shutdown and there is overwhelming political will within the GOP to take action to support Israel.
• Chad Pegram at Fox News notes: "...things do have a way of coming together quickly sometime on Capitol Hill. So we would never rule out a vote today."