The U.S. House of Representatives hasn't had a permanent speaker for more than a week.

Our colleague Katie Stetsch-Ferrick has had a ringside seat.

What is the vibe around Capitol Hill these days?

There's a lot of disbelief that were in this moment, a lot of among-house Republicans

had a lot of frustration that they're in this moment, and a lot of urgency that something

needs to be done to fix the fact that we do not have a house speaker.

Today, House Republicans sought to change that by putting forward one name, veteran lawmaker

and current house majority leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

Why is it so urgent to get a speaker in place?

There is a lot to do in Congress right now.

Right now, federal agencies are operating off of a temporary spending extension that they

got at the last minute about two weeks ago, so Congress needs to figure out spending

levels for federal agency for the next year.

Ukraine, President Zelensky was here a few weeks ago asking for more aid and weapons to assist

in the conflict, and that was before this past weekend with attacks in Israel.

Things got a lot more urgent after that when lawmakers realized that they aren't even

in a position to respond and condemn the attacks, let alone send over money or weapons or

anything else that Israel might need.

But actually getting the speaker's gavel into Scalise's hand is already proving to be

a challenge.

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and power.

I'm Kate Leimbaugh, it's Wednesday, October 11th.

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