Tom Kean Jr. is ready to take his seat in Congress, but the U.S. House can’t organize until a speaker is elected.
That means no committee assignments, votes on legislation, or oaths administered to new members including New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District’s duly elected federal representative.
How long could it take?
In 1856 on the eve of the U.S. Civil War, members spent two months casting 133 ballots before a speaker was finally elected.
“At the conclusion of the longest and most contentious Speaker election in House history, the House elected Representative Nathaniel Banks of Massachusetts as its presiding officer for the 34th Congress (1855–1857). Sectional conflict over slavery and a rising anti-immigrant mood in the nation contributed to a poisoned and deteriorating political climate,” explains the U.S. House historian’s website. “As a sign of the factionalism then existing in the House, more than 21 individuals initially vied for the Speaker’s post when the Members first gathered in December, 1855. After two months and 133 ballots, the House finally chose Representative Banks by a vote of 103 to 100 over Representative William Aiken of South Carolina. Banks, a member of both the nativist American (or “Know-Nothing”) Party and the Free Soil Party, served a term as Speaker before Democrats won control of the chamber in the 35th Congress (1857–1859). Banks retired from the House to serve as governor of Massachusetts.”
More recently in 1923, members of the U.S. House cast nine ballots before finally settling upon Frederick Gillett, also of Massachusetts.
