North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry, chair of the United States House Financial Services Committee and crypto proponent in Congress, is still temporarily in the third most powerful role in government after one of his Republican colleagues failed to secure enough votes.
In a vote conducted with members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 17, no candidate for Speaker won a majority of votes needed to secure the position. Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, the Republican Party’s nominee for Speaker, obtained 200 votes — short of the 217 needed to win.
All 212 Democratic members of the House voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, with other votes by Republican lawmakers going to Representatives Steve Scalise, Kevin McCarthy, Tom Emmer, Tom Cole, Thomas Massie and Mike Garcia, as well as former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin. According to House rules, a Speaker need not be a member of Congress.
Rep. McHenry, who has been serving as interim Speaker since Republican members voted to oust McCarthy on Oct. 4, currently lacks the authority to move legislation forward in the House, with the exception of the Speaker vote. For the first time in U.S. history, half of the legislative branch of the federal government was largely paralyzed, making it impossible to move forward with crypto-related bills.
Rep. Patrick McHenry addressing the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 17. Source
Many pro-crypto users on social media have called on lawmakers to make McHenry the next Speaker — an outcome which would also require nearly all Republicans in the House to unite behind one candidate. Behind U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Speaker of the House is second in the country’s presidential line of succession. However, some experts have reportedly said the line of succession does not apply to an interim Speaker like McHenry.
At the time of publication, it was unclear when McHenry planned to call for a second vote. Many have criticized Jordan for repeating falsehoods surrounding the results of the 2020 presidential election in favor of former President Donald Trump, but he remains the leading candidate with a Republican majority in the House and Democrats united behind Jeffries.
McHenry led the House Financial Services Committee as lawmakers voted in favor of crypto bills including the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act and the Keep Your Coins Act. The pieces of legislation are expected to head to the House floor for a full vote, but the current situation with the Speaker makes that unlikely in the near future.
Sir Keir Starmer will on Monday join world leaders at a historic summit in Egypt to witness the signing of the Gaza peace plan to end two years of conflict, bloodshed and suffering, that has cost tens of thousands of lives and turned Gaza into a wasteland.
Travelling over to Egypt, flanked by his national security advisor Jonathan Powell, the prime minister told me it was a “massive moment” and one that is genuinely historic.
In the flurry of the following 48 hours, Mr Starmer and another twenty or so leaders were invited to Egypt to bear witness to the signing of this deal, with many of them deserving some credit for the effort they made to bring this deal around, not least the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, who pressed Hamas to sign up to this deal.
On Monday, the remaining 20 living hostages are finally set to be released, along with the bodies of another 28 who were either killed or died in captivity, and aid is due to flow back into a starving Gaza.
Some 1,200 Israelis were killed on 7 October 2023, with another 250 taken hostage. In the subsequent war, most of Gaza’s two million population has been displaced. More than 67,000 Gazans have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials
Then, the signing ceremony is due to take place on Monday afternoon in Sharm el-Sheikh. It will be a momentous moment after a long and bloody war.
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But it is only just the beginning of a long process to rebuild Gaza and try to secure a lasting peace in the region.
The immediate focus for the UK and other nations will be to get aid into Gaza with the UK committing £20m on Monday for water, sanitation and hygiene services for Gazans.
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Humanitarian aid rolls into Gaza
But the bigger focus for the UK and other European allies is what happens after the hostages are released and Israel withdraws its troops.
Because what happens next is a much bigger and more complicated task: rebuilding Gaza; turning it into a terrorist-free zone; governing Gaza – the current plan is for a temporary apolitical committee; creating an international stabilisation force and all the tensions that could bring about – which troops each side would allow in; a commitment for Israel not to occupy or annex Gaza, even as Netanyahu makes plain his opposition to that plan.
The scale of the challenge is matched by the scale of devastation caused by this brutal war.
The prime minister will tomorrow set out his ambition for the UK to play a leading role in the next phase of the peace plan.
Back home the UK is hosting a three-day conference on Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction.
Last week, France hosted European diplomats and key figures from Middle Eastern countries, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and later this week, the German chancellor is hoping to organise a conference on the reconstruction of Gaza with the Egyptians.
But in reality, European leaders know the key to phase two remains the key to phase one: and that’s Donald Trump.
As one UK figure put it to me over the weekend: “There is lots of praise, rightly, for the US president, who got this over the line, but the big challenge for us post-war is implementing the plan. Clearly, Arab partners are concerned the US will lose focus”.
The prime minister knows this and has made a point, at every point, to praise Mr Trump.
Image: Bridget Phillipson and Mike Huckabee. Pics: Sky/AP
His cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson learned that diplomatic lesson the hard way on Sunday when she was publicly lambasted by the US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee for suggesting to my colleague Trevor Phillips that the UK “had played a key role behind the scenes” and failed to mention Mr Trump by name.
“I assure you she is delusional,” tweeted Governor Huckabee. “She can thank @realDonaldTrump anytime just to set the record straight”.
On Monday, leaders will rightly be praising Mr Trump for securing the breakthrough to stop the fighting and get the remaining hostages home.
Image: People hug next in Hostages Square. Pic: Reuters
But this is only the beginning of a very long journey ahead to push through the rest of the 19-point plan and stop the region from falling back into conflict.
Britain has, I am told, been playing a role behind the scenes. The PM’s national security adviser Mr Powell was in Egypt last week and has been in daily touch with his US counterpart Steve Witkoff, according to government sources. Next week the King of Jordan will come to the UK.
Part of the UK’s task will be to get more involved, with the government and European partners keen to get further European representation on Trump’s temporary governance committee for Gaza, which Tony Blair (who was not recommended or endorsed by the UK) is on and Mr Trump will chair.
The committee will include other heads of states and members, including qualified Palestinians and international experts.
As for the former prime minister’s involvement, there hasn’t been an overt ringing endorsement from the UK government.
It’s helpful to have Mr Blair at the table because he can communicate back to the current government, but equally, as one diplomatic source put it to me: “While a lot of people in the Middle East acknowledge his experience, expertise and contact book, they don’t like him and we need – sooner rather than later – other names included that Gulf partners can get behind.”
On Monday it will be the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey that sign off on the peace plan they directly negotiated, as other Middle Eastern and European leaders, who have flown into Sharm el-Sheikh to bear witness, look on.
But in the coming days and weeks, there will need to be a big international effort, led by Mr Trump, not just to secure the peace, but to keep it.