WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Despite lawmakers finally being able to elect a Speaker of the House in the early hours of Saturday morning, the discord is sparking concerns from the U.S. representatives from Florida.
WPTV spoke with Reps. Brian Mast, R-Fla., and Lois Frankel, D-Fla., to get their reactions to the 15 ballots it took to finally elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, to the speaker position.
Mast said he expects the law-making process to be "tougher than ever" over the next couple of years based on his party's unwillingness to come to a consensus on who should be the speaker.
"It will be a more difficult process, a messier process, but in the end, it will be a process in the way the founders designed this country to operate," Mast said.
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As one of the Republicans who voted in favor of McCarthy and fully supports him, Mast said he's glad the election is over, and they were finally able to find some common ground.
"He very literally did more work over the last two to four years to help Republicans get back into the majority [than any other] individual," Mast said.
There is now widespread concern about whether or not Congress will be able to achieve substantive legislation.
"It was a very strange few days," Frankel said. "Very chaotic, very embarrassing, I thought for the country."
Frankel said despite how exhausting these last few days were, the real difficulties lie ahead of them.
"I'm not as concerned about the last few days as what we're looking at for the next two years," Frankel said. "It became obvious that just 20 members out of 435 can completely hold up government, and that's worrisome."
She said that even though the group holding up the selection of McCarthy was a minority, they are a sizeable group that can make all the difference.
"It's not all Republicans," Frankel said. "It's these 20 very, very right-wing conservative Republicans who don't believe in government and think nothing of stopping everything."
