Valadao, Costa pleased to see a new Speaker of the House

WASHINGTON (KSEE/KGPE) – U.S. representatives have elected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as the new Speaker of the House Wednesday after three weeks of discussing who would replace former speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

McCarthy was voted out on Oct. 3 and ever since, Republicans have been trying to replace him. They nominated Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.) twice; his nomination was met with opposition from both sides.

GOP’s Jim Jordan fails again on vote for House speaker as frustrated Republicans search for options

Johnson won in a 220-209 vote on Wednesday, with a few absences.

Tulare-area Congressmember David Valadao (R-Calif.) says he’s glad they were able to elect a new speaker to the house.

Valadao says there was a lot of frustration about choosing the new speaker of the house and says that the majority of members realized that they needed to get to a point where they could start working again.

“It took us too long to get there. The fact that we were in this mess, to begin with, with the eight Republicans who decided to throw the chaos and Democrats work with them to make this chaos reality is unfortunate, but we’re happy to move forward now,” said Valadao.

Valadao isn’t the only representative glad to get back to work. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) released a statement also stating that they can get back to work.

“After 22 days without a Speaker of the House, today’s election of Rep. Johnson means we can get back to work. We have a lot of work to do,  including keeping the government funded by passing a budget,” said Costa.

Costa said that the American people deserve a Congress that can govern and deliver for them in times of crisis and hope that they can work in a bipartisan fashion to get things done on behalf of the American people.

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