EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) – The U.S. House of Representatives has yet to elect its leader. leaving elected officials like Congressman-elect Derrick Van Orden waiting to be sworn in.
“It’s really quite unusual. It’s nothing like we’ve experienced in our lifetime,” said UW-Eau Claire professor Geoff Peterson, PhD. He is a political science professor who says the stalemate is something that has not been seen in more than a century.
Republican Keven McCarty of California has come up short after six rounds of voting for house speaker.
Professor Peterson said this is an indicator of how the next couple of years the Republican controlled House of Representatives will operate.
“It just really indicates how much politics has shifted within the house and within the Republican party over the last 6 to 8 years,” said Professor Peterson.
The implications here he said could be the group of Republicans holding up the vote potentially being able to hold up any legislation from their colleagues they don’t necessarily like.
“I think that’s the bigger sign that comes out of this. This group is willing to take the public hits in order to make their point,” said Professor Peterson. And it is something he said could affect Wisconsin if legislation being blocked includes anything benefitting the industries here. He said Wisconsin, like most other states, relies on Federal funding and could stand to lose a lot if legislation that grants them that money is threatened.
In the meantime, Congressman-elect Van Orden will have to wait until a speaker of the house is elected.
“We literally cannot do anything. I am still a congressman elect. If you think about it, we have no congress. No one is sworn into congress,” said Rep.-elect Van Orden. He stands by Kevin McCarthy for the speakership. “Kevin McCarthy is the only Republican in that building across the street that can garner enough votes to become the next speaker of the house. The only one.”
And he said he will keep voting for the California congressman for speaker of the house.
“I think we need to keep doing what we’re doing. To keep an open dialogue amongst members of our own conference, find out what they really want and what they think should take place and the if we can accommodate it we’ll accommodate it,” said Rep.-elect Van Orden.
When asked what he would do when sworn in to congress, Congressman-elect Van Orden said he plans to tackle a police on Internet transactions. He said it is potentially harmful to sellers who are required to claim as little as $600 as income. Van Orden said the Republican plan is to de-fund 87,000 IRS agents.

Weau