What powers does the Speaker of the House have?

Civics 101

NHPR

Society & Culture, Government, History

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2023

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In light of the recent kerfuffle regarding the many elections for a new Speaker of the House, we decided it was time to break down the powers and history of the second-most powerful job in DC. Dan Cassino of Farleigh Dickinson University tells us all about the Speaker; from fundraising to the rules committee to the steering committee to a self-proclaimed Beelzebub to what the repeated failed elections for a Speaker portends for Congress. Click here to listen to our episode on How A Bill (Really) Becomes a Law and click here to learn more about committees. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	With that I want to congratulate the speaker.
0:04.0	I do not have the gavel.
0:06.0	I pass this great gavel of our government with resignation but with resolve.
0:12.0	As I hand you this gavel, I asked did you keep in mind of all the voices in America
0:17.0	that have a voice on this floor.
0:18.0	Before I hand the gavel over to our new speaker let me say to him simply let's bury the hatchet.
0:27.0	You're listening to Civics 101 I'm Nick Capadiche and
0:31.0	I'm Hannah McCarthy and today we are talking about the history and ever shifting
0:35.6	powers of what is sometimes referred to as the second most powerful job in
0:39.6	Washington DC the Speaker of the House.
0:55.0	Nick, so this position has been in the news an awful lot lately and probably shall continue to be in the months to come. So should we do an as of this recording thing here?
0:59.4	A major breakthrough in the House of Representatives
1:02.0	after three weeks of chaos and dysfunction among Republicans,
1:06.4	the GOP finally came together to elect a new Speaker of the House.
1:10.0	Conservative Mike Johnson of Louisiana...
1:12.0	As of this recording, November 1st, 2023,
1:15.7	after many failed votes and three weeks of no speaker in the House for the first time in
1:20.0	US history, the newly elected current speaker of the House is Mike Johnson.
1:25.0	He is a Republican congressman from Louisiana, and he is the 56th person to claim that role.
1:31.0	And I would really like to talk about what it means that there have been so many
1:35.0	failed votes, but can we just talk about the job first?
1:38.0	Absolutely, that sounds good. I'll save the current situation dealing with the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NHPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NHPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.