As Speaker Chaos Grows, so Does Talk of Empowering McHenry

The second failed effort on Wednesday by Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio to be elected House speaker added momentum to an idea that has been floated by lawmakers in both parties in recent days: Give Representative Patrick T. McHenry, the interim speaker, explicit power to conduct legislative business.

Mr. McHenry is acting as temporary speaker under rules adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that require the speaker of the House to come up with a list of people to fill the post in the event that it becomes vacant. When former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was booted out by a right-wing rebellion two weeks ago, the world learned that Mr. McHenry’s was the first name on his list.

Many House aides believe that Mr. McHenry’s power is strictly confined to presiding over the election of a new speaker, as he has been doing this week. But because this situation hasn’t come up before, some congressional scholars argue that the bounds of the acting speaker’s power are largely dependent on what a majority of members is willing to tolerate.

And as the turmoil around replacing Mr. McCarthy has continued, some members in both parties have been quietly discussing a way to explicitly grant Mr. McHenry permission to step in with full — or at least expanded — authority to run the House.

The talks have gained urgency as war has broken out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and lawmakers increasingly worry that the House will be unable to act on that crisis — or make any progress on a measure to fund the government and avoid a shutdown next month.

Representative David Joyce, Republican of Ohio, was circulating a bipartisan plan on Wednesday that would give Mr. McHenry the power to run the House floor through Jan. 3 — though the exact period of time was still up for discussion, according to lawmakers and aides familiar with the proposal who discussed it on the condition of anonymity.