on Capitol Hill House Republicans voted behind closed doors today choosing Majority Leader Steve scalise as their party's nominee for speaker the GOP congressman from Louisiana still needs to win the majority vote from the Full House that includes Democrats to become the chamber's leader the conference was closely divided though between scales and Ohio conservative representative and Trump Ally Jim Jordan with just a 14 vote difference the move comes as the GOP stares down the outbreak of war in Israel and military aid commitments from the US for more on what this means I'm joined by Rutgers- Camden associate professor of political science Kelly Dittmar Kelly Dittmar, Kelly thanks so much for joining me I mean critical uh happenings on the hill today the House GOP behind closed doors put forward Steve scalise as their nominee for the speaker what does this say yeah I mean it puts us a step forward to getting to the floor and now the question is can Steve scales actually win the 2117 votes he needs to become speaker um and I think right now that is not at all a short bet because if you look at the vote that came out of this committee at least 99 Republicans did not vote for St G um maybe they will all fall in line um but from the the comments we heard even before the meeting today um it's likely that there will be some holdouts in that group and might be anywhere from a very small number that can still sty the vote as we saw previously with Kevin McCarthy to a large number who might Force the conference to go back to these closed door meetings and figure out another route to a solution so I think we still have work that we'll see needs to be done to get to a speaker ultimately this scene was chaotic enough add to it the tragedy unfolding right now in Israel what does that mean for how these negotiations are playing out on the hill and and really how tied the hands of Congress are right now yeah I mean I think it really sheds a bright Spotlight on uh the lack of uh a speaker and so it puts a lot of pressure on the Republicans to really come together and figure out how they're going to proceed through this gridlock so that the business of Congress can be done and of course at this moment one of the most important points of business is on the substantive side making sure that any resources that need to be sent to uh the Middle East get moved forward um and then symbolically I mean Congress is looked to as a voice um in international Politics as well and so it matters that they put forth resolutions they speak on the floor um in in support of our allies um and against these atrocities and right now um their hands are tied do you see this hampering the US's ability ility to Aid Israel as President Biden came out boldly yesterday saying that we would give Israel essentially whatever it needs to defend itself um without a speaker is it possible yeah I mean I think that the administration is going to find all of the ways that they can move around this but it is going to certainly be much easier um and important for Congress to be functioning so that a a full support package um can be sent to the Middle East I mean if this drags out we know what happened with speaker mccarth McCarthy 15 ballots I guess my question is twofold a can Congress afford to go through a lengthy process again given the circumstances uh and B if they do how far does that set us back in the goals that need to be accomplished immediately I mean you know unfortunately the answer to the first is it might not matter if we can or can't handle it right um it's not good for Dem Ry but there will come a point where there has to be a resolution in large part because also remember the government will not be funded in another I don't know what the count is now but we're probably under 40 days and so um you know there will be increasing pressure on uh the members of Congress and particularly in the Republican conference to figure out a solution um and I think they will um but they're certainly uh digging in their feet right now largely for par and ideological reasons which is unfortunate because I think that that um continues to play into voters perceptions that this Congress is is unable to get things done Kelly Dittmar is an associate professor of political science at Rutger's Camden Kelly thank you so much thank