Votes being tallied in Republican speaker nomination
Two Republicans who departed the meeting confirmed that the ballots are now being counted.
In other meeting news: Republicans to introduce resolution to expel Santos
A group of House Republicans from New York are introducing a resolution to expel Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., from Congress.
“Today, I’ll be introducing an expulsion resolution to rid the People’s House of fraudster George Santos,” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., said in a post on the social media platform X.
He said the resolution will be co-sponsored by fellow New York House Republicans Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy and Brandon Williams.
Gaetz no longer expected to appear at Trump event in Florida tonight
The Trump campaign has confirmed to NBC News that Gaetz is no longer expected to appear at an event featuring the former president tonight. Gaetz was scheduled to appear at the Palm Beach event before the speakership vote was scheduled. Gaetz's office has not responded to requests for comment.
House Republicans voting now on next speaker
House Republicans are voting behind closed doors now on Jordan vs. Scalise.
Womack motions to sink rule change
Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., confirmed to reporters that he offered a motion to table or kill the proposed rules change that would raise the threshold needed by a speaker candidate to head to the floor.
The motion was successful, Rep. Ken Buck said, so either Scalise or Jordan can win the nomination with just a simple majority of the GOP Conference, or 111 votes.
How the House will elect a new speaker: What to know ahead of the vote
House Republicans met privately this morning to choose a nominee to be the next speaker, more than a week after McCarthy was ousted from the chamber’s top job.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., has been serving in an acting capacity as speaker pro tempore.
If Republicans can reach consensus about their preferred nominee, the full House will then vote on who the next speaker will be.
Read the story here on the process of electing a new speaker.
Here are the nominating speakers for both candidates
Scalise will be nominated with speeches by Reps. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, and John James, R-Mich.
Jordan will be nominated with speeches by Reps. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., Erin Houchin, R-Ind., and Mike Carey, R-Ohio.
Meeting appears underway
Most members seem to have arrived at the closed-door meeting and it seems to be underway.
Where is the closed-door meeting being held?
House Republicans are meeting behind closed doors in a large hearing room in the Longworth House Office Building.
While the room has been used primarily by the Ways and Means Committee since the 1930s, it was also the meeting place for the full House in 1949 and 1950 during construction in the House chamber.
Scalise says his first order of business if elected speaker is an Israel resolution
Scalise told reporters this morning that under "Speaker Scalise," the first order of business would be a "strong resolution expressing support for Israel."
"We've got a very bipartisan bill. The McCall-Meeks resolution is ready to go right away to express our support for Israel now. We got to get back to work today," he said.