How Much Republicans Were Paid While House Was in Deadlock

Republican representatives earned over $2,000,000 collectively while the House of Representatives was in a deadlock without a speaker this month.

After Kevin McCarthy was ousted on October 3, the House had no speaker for 21 days, the longest that Congress has been rudderless since 1962, when it took 55 days to elect a speaker.

According to Newsweek analysis, during that period, the 222 Republicans in the House earned a collective $2,228,538. This equates to some $10,000 each of their $174,000 annual salaries.

During this time, the House was unable to pass any new legislation or funding, including President Joe Biden's proposed $105 billion national security aid package, which included $61 billion for Ukraine.

Newsweek reached out to the Republican Party via email contact form for comment.

Before electing new House Speaker Mike Johnson this week, Republicans struggled to agree on a candidate.

Ohio Representative Jim Jordan was removed as the party's nominee after three unsuccessful rounds of voting. Steve Scalise of Louisiana dropped out of the race on October 12, a day after his party chose him when it became clear he wouldn't secure enough votes. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania later announced he was pulling out to help support Donald Trump with his presidential campaign.

Tom Emmer of Minnesota pulled out of the race when Trump spoke out against him on Truth Social.

Until the new speaker was elected, Representative Patrick McHenry served as speaker pro tempore. However, the interim position has limited powers to bring bills to the floor.

An effort to give McHenry interim power to call up bills and schedule them for votes collapsed after some Republicans objected that this would amount to establishing coalition rule in the House, given it would require the votes of some Democrats.

While in deadlock, McHenry signaled his disagreement that the House could not continue its work.

He said: "On the national security front, we have fully constituted committees. Committees can still work, and they are working,"

He continued, "I want to thank the administration for their briefings on the supplemental request for national security...Our committees are working with the administration. And the goal there for our committees is to be ready to respond legislatively once we have a duly elected Speaker of the House."

"This House Republican majority is united," Johnson said upon being voted speaker designate on Tuesday night. "I am honored to have the support of my colleagues, and what they understand about is this is servant leadership. We're going to serve the people of this country; we're going to restore their faith in this Congress."

Under his leadership, the House has resumed normal work and has now passed legislation that would cut billions of dollars in consumer rebates for energy efficiency upgrades included in President Joe Biden's signature climate law, Bloomberg reported.