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McCarthy elected speaker after 4th day and the 15th ballot

“Our debates will be passionate but not personal” Speaker-elect McCarthy tells Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as he accepts gavel

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In the final vote tally shortly after midnight on Saturday January 7, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California was elected Speaker with 216 votes followed by Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) with 211 and 6 lawmakers voting present, in the 15th and final ballot.

He was sworn in at 1:40 AM Eastern and in turn Speaker McCarthy then swore in the assembled members of the 118th Congress en masse. Afterwards the Democratic and Republican conferences appointed their leadership roles and House officers including the Clerk of the House and the House Sergeant-at-Arms who were also sworn in.

The House adjourned at 1:54 a.m. Saturday and is set to reconvene on Monday at 5 p.m. ET.

McCarthy was initially stymied again in his quest to be speaker Friday evening as the 14th floor vote was held in the chamber and it became apparent he had once again not garnered the requisite votes needed.

McCarthy confronts Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz (Screenshot/CSPAN)

After two key Republican holdouts voted present to lower the tally McCarthy would need to get the gavel, a visibly angry McCarthy strode to the back of the chamber to confront Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who was seated with Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert and some of the other holdouts who had vocally opposed his speakership.

At one point, someone was heard to shout at the two lawmakers: “Stay civil!” Meanwhile, Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers had to be physically restrained from attacking Gaetz by Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) and others.

Screenshot/CSPAN

There was a motion to adjourn, which initially had enough votes to carry, but was ultimately defeated. The clerk of the House, Cheryl L. Johnson, commenced the fifteenth voice roll call vote after McCarthy’s name was again put forward.

During the vote, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) shouted: “For the 15th and final goddamn time, Kevin McCarthy”

The final path to the speaker’s chair occurred as Gaetz and Boebert, joined by other McCarthy opponents, voted present.

McCarthy’s victory required him and his allies to make extraordinary concessions to the bloc of far-right holdouts.

These included changes to House rules that empowered the House Freedom Caucus, and a new rules package. CNN reported that package included:

  • Any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair – this is significant because it would make it much easier than it is currently to trigger what is effectively a no confidence vote in the speaker. Conservatives pushed hard for this, while moderates are worried it will weaken McCarthy’s hand.
  • A McCarthy-aligned super PAC agreed to not play in open Republican primaries in safe seats
  • The House will hold votes on key conservative bills, including a balanced budget amendment, congressional term limits and border security
  • Efforts to raise the nation’s debt ceiling must be paired with spending cuts. This could become a major issue in the future when it is time to raise the debt limit to avoid a catastrophic default because Democrats in the Senate and the White House would likely oppose demands for spending cuts
  • Move 12 appropriations bills individually. Instead of passing separate bills to fund government operations, Congress frequently passes a massive year-end spending package known as an “omnibus” that rolls everything into one bill. Conservatives rail against this, arguing that it evades oversight and allows lawmakers to stick in extraneous pet projects.
  • More Freedom Caucus representation on committees, including the powerful House Rules Committee
  • Cap discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels, which would amount to lower levels for defense and domestic programs
  • 72 hours to review bills before they come to floor
  • Give members the ability to offer more amendments on the House floor
  • Create an investigative committee to probe the “weaponization” of the federal government
  • Restore the Holman rule, which can be used to reduce the salary of government officials

The White House released a statement from President Joe Biden:

“Jill and I congratulate Kevin McCarthy on his election as speaker of the House. The American people expect their leaders to govern in a way that puts their needs above all else, and that is what we need to do now.  
 
As I said after the midterms, I am prepared to work with Republicans when I can and voters made clear that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well.  Now that the leadership of the House of Representatives has been decided it is time for that process to begin.”

It was the first time in a century that the gavel was not passed with the first ballot, paralyzing the House as new lawmakers could not be seated and activity like committee assignments and legislation was ground to a halt.

McCarthy had faced an obstinate group of about 20 hardline GOP members, despite having won the endorsement of influential conservative media figures, former president Donald Trump, and ultraconservative members of the conference like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.).

Signs that the dam was breaking began to emerge Friday amid reporting that the Republican leader made more concessions, such as by agreeing to a rules change that would allow for any GOP member to call for a vote to vacate the speakership at any time and for any reason.

Partly as a consequence of the conditions to which he agreed to earn their support, McCarthy’s autonomy over the gavel is expected to be compromised by the ultraconservative faction of the House GOP caucus whose power was just demonstrated during the speakership election.

McCarthy has long been an opponent of LGBTQ rights. The Republican Leader cosigned the House GOP’s legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act during the Obama administration in 2011, later co-authoring an amicus brief supporting the legislation to the U.S. Supreme Court.

More recently, in 2022 McCarthy voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which codifies key protections for LGBTQ people as a safeguard if the Supreme Court overturns or weakens the constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

The Human Rights Campaign awards McCarthy a score of “0” for his record in the legislature.

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Congress

Ritchie Torres speaks about mental health struggles

Openly gay N.Y. congressman appeared on ‘GMA3’

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U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) (Screen capture via GMA3 Twitter video)

New York Congressman Ritchie Torres has spoken out about his struggle with depression and the importance of mental health in the wake of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.)’s recent hospitalization for clinical depression. 

Torres, a Democrat who is the first openly gay Afro-Latino member of Congress, told “GMA3” hosts DeMarco Morgan and Eva Pilgrim on Tuesday that he had “an obligation to tell” his “story in the hopes of breaking the shame and silence, and stigma that too often surrounds the subject of mental health.”

Torres views his coming to terms with his mental health issues — while also being open about it — as a form of “public service” to the American people. 

“We live in a society that historically has shamed people for experiencing mental illness, that has framed mental illness as a failure of character or a failure of willpower. And I’m here to send a message that mental illness is nothing of which to be ashamed, that there are millions of Americans who struggle with depression and anxiety,” Torres explained. 

Even before being elected to Congress, Torres, 34, spoke freely about his past experiences concerning mental health issues and how they affected him. While campaigning, one of his opponents tried to use his depression as a counterpoint to prove that he was not worthy of being in public office. 

From then on, Torres vowed to “never again would I allow my mental health to be weaponized,” he told Time magazine

He emphasized the importance of psychotherapy and medication as a means of controlling his depressive episodes and going through his day by day as a congressman.

He noted, however, that “there are people who have trouble accessing mental health care.” 

“And even if you do, the process of experimenting with psychiatric medications can be draining and debilitating, because there’s no one size fits all,” he added. 

Torres said he hopes that Congress can pave the way for more mental health care for the millions of Americans who need it.

“Our healthcare system is fundamentally broken and Congress is no closer to fixing it,” he argued. 

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Sorensen: ‘We’re going to do better today for the next generation’

‘Everyone should be speaking out’ against anti-trans extremism

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Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Whether on matters concerning climate change or LGBTQ rights, members of Congress ought to focus on making progress for the benefit of the next generation, U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.) told the Washington Blade.

“It’s making that decision today to talk about what’s in our future, not what’s in our past, and to say, ‘let’s just do what’s best for our kids,'” Sorensen said during an exclusive interview with the Blade from his office last week.

The congressman, who became the first openly gay member to represent the state of Illinois in either chamber with his election in 2022, has plenty of experience reaching folks with this message.

A meteorologist by trade, Sorensen began his television career at the ABC affiliate KTRE in Lufkin, Texas in 1999 before becoming chief meteorologist for WREX, Rockford, Illinois’s NBC affiliate, and then senior meteorologist at the ABC affiliate WQAD serving the Quad Cities area.

“You know, I was the one talking about climate change to farmers,” Sorensen said.

“Whenever I talk about climate change, I don’t fault anyone for being in a different place in the past,” he said, which helps to avoid positioning conservatives and climate skeptics in a defensive posture.

“We don’t ever have to agree on who’s causing climate change, or what 1.5 degrees celsius or two degrees celsius means,” Sorensen said. “Let’s just say that we’re going to do better today for the next generation, okay? And the same thing with LGBTQ issues, right?”

As it turned out, discussing climate change “wasn’t this third rail that we thought it was,” he said. Likewise, “it was the same thing as when I had my trans friends on television on Good Morning Quad Cities” for National Coming Out Day.

The move was important, Sorensen said, “so that my community could see these are real people…my friend Paula and my friend Chase are real people.” The congressman added, “we talked about how we came out, and we didn’t get any backlash [from the audience], because, you know what? I don’t live in a hateful community.”

Sorensen said the network looked at audience engagement metrics for segments featuring his trans friends, and for segments in which he addressed climate change, and the data repeatedly indicated that viewers were able to easily countenance both.

Some of this might be attributed to the good will he had built with this audience. After all, “I was the one they were turning to when the tornado was bearing down on their family’s home,” Sorensen said.

Regardless, “how do we expect people to understand if we don’t explain these things?”

‘Everyone should be speaking out’ against anti-trans extremism

Last week, Republicans on the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee passed legislation that would bar transgender women and girls from competing in school sports per Title IX.

The measure, part of a nationwide wave of anti-trans bills, is likely fated to languish in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

On the heels of a press conference to drum up opposition to the bill that was hosted by the Congressional Equality Caucus and its chair, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Sorensen said, “I’m disappointed because these are real people.”

“We have to understand that, you know, when we talk about the threat that transgender people face today, if you just look at what is being proposed, what the extreme Republicans are saying, is that there’s now a group of kids or a group of people that don’t deserve to learn what athletics is about,” said the congressman, who is also a co-chair of the Equality Caucus.

Sorensen said the message from Republican members backing this legislation is that “this group [of women and girls] doesn’t deserve to learn teamwork as a kid.”

“It’s terrible,” he said. “Everyone should be speaking out against this. What it just shows is that these Republicans, they’re just stoking fear and division and being extreme, instead of actually solving the problems of the people.”

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) at the U.S. Capitol on March 8 speaking out against the proposed trans sports ban. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

“I think it’s a point of extreme Republicans to run on this platform instead of solving the problems that we do have in front of us,” Sorensen said.

He noted extremism doesn’t seem to have been a winning message for Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, during which time the GOP’s focus was on issues like the economy and healthcare.

It is remarkable “how things have changed in such a short amount of time,” Sorensen said. “And that’s because the Republicans, these extreme Republicans, have decided that they’re going to to roll through this division and hate.”

“It’s insane,” he said, pointing to legislation like the bill proposed in the Iowa Legislature to ban same-sex marriage “when it’s already been set in stone.”

At the same time, the congressman said, there is ample reason for optimism. For example, “in the state of Illinois we rejected that hate because the state of Illinois elected its first LGBTQ member of Congress.”

And back in the Quad Cities, Sorensen had the chance to meet the next generation of out youth when volunteering at the area’s LGBTQ community center, Clock, Inc. “I just stood there in awe at these kids that were able to be themselves.”

Moving forward, Sorensen said Democrats should continue to prioritize issues that Americans actually care about.

“I don’t feel like we need to defend ourselves,” he said. “You know, if they want to put this wedge issue out there, we need to just be able to say, ‘I’m fighting for Americans. I’m fighting to lower the price of goods, connecting people to health care,'” which includes healthcare for trans folks as well as reproductive care including abortions.

Sorensen said his identity as a gay man was not a central feature of his congressional campaign, but still, for many folks, “the only gay person that they knew was Eric Sorensen on channel eight.”

Overcoming homophobia

Growing up in the 1980s during the AIDS crisis, Sorensen said he asked himself, “Why should I even try?” He told the Blade, “I can see in my head the pictures of a hospital room, and I thought, ‘that’s how I’m gonna die,'” he said, so, “why would I even try, when they’re never going to allow me to be on television?”

Having relocated from Lufkin to Tyler, after a couple of years working as a meteorologist in the comparably larger northeast Texas metropolitan area, Sorensen said his sexual orientation became a problem for his employer in 2003.

“My boss told me, ‘Eric, I need you to go to the conference room after your show’s over,'” the congressman remembers.

Laid before Sorensen was his employment contract, a document he had not seen since he had signed it. “All of a sudden,” he said, “the members of management walk in, and I was told to have a seat while nobody across the table sat down – so they were looking down upon me.”

They had been alerted to Sorensen’s profile on Gay.com and offered him the choice to “be that person,” pointing to a printout of his profile, “or have a job.”

From there, he took a pay cut to return to Illinois where “I got to be out,” he said, “I got to be myself,” while every day at work, “I was telling my mom and dad what the weather was like.”

The congressman added, “If I would have given up in that space in Texas, where would I be? I wouldn’t be here today.”

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Pocan, Congressional Equality Caucus criticize trans sports ban bill

Measure scheduled for markup in House committee on Wednesday

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U.S> Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) speaks at the U.S. Capitol on March 8, 2023 (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and the Congressional Equality Caucus held a press conference Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol to rally opposition to House Republicans’ proposed legislation that would prohibit transgender women and girls from participating in sports.

The bill was slated for markup by the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee later Wednesday.

“I’m assuming by the time it gets to the floor, we have talked to many members of Congress, especially on the Democratic side, we’re gonna fight hard on this,” Pocan said in response to a question from the Washington Blade.

“I have no idea where some of the extreme politicians may try to take this, but the bottom line is they promised us they’re going to lower the costs for the American people they promised us smaller, less intrusive government, and now they’re being the biggest of big brother that can possibly be by trying to determine which kids can play in sports,” Pocan said.

Joining Pocan and the caucus at the press conference were Shiwali Patel, director of justice for student survivors and senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, Rebekah Bruesehoff, a trans student athlete, and Jamie Bruesehoff, her mother.

“Today, Republicans are showing their real priorities, political priorities, by considering a trans and intersex sports ban as the opening salvo in their efforts to undermine the rights of LGBTQI+ people,” Pocan said during his prepared remarks.

“Women and girls face real problems on the field, from strained resources to unequal pay and sexual harassment and assault, but rather than dealing with these matters or other challenges like gun violence, members on the Education and the Workforce Committee will spend their first legislative markup targeting a handful of trans girls and women who participate in school sports,” Pocan said.

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