Congress won’t vote today on Steve Scalise for House Speaker – live

Steve Scalise has cleared a major hurdle with today’s behind-the-scenes GOP vote, but that’s not the end of the race for Speaker of the House.

Now, the full House of Representatives will vote on his candidacy.

Republicans have a majority in the House, but only a slim one; to get the necessary 217 votes, Mr Scalise can only lose up to four GOP members.

The state of play has already changed in the race for Speaker of the House.

A vote on Steve Scalise’s Republican-backed candidacy will reportedly not take place today, according to CNN.

However, when the vote does occur, his rival Jim Jordan will reportedly nominate the Louisiana Republican, potentially sparing the GOP from another humiliating internecine battle in the House.

The vote was 113-99 in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday morning. A loud cheer was heard by reporters as the result was announced.

Mr Scalise will now need to muster 217 votes on the floor of the House to become speaker and second in line to the presidency. A full chamber vote is scheduled for 3pm ET this afternoon.

This will require the backing of almost all of the GOP conference — just five members could block him from winning the gavel.

Oliver O’Connell is following all the details.

During today’s Republican vote to nominate their pick for the next Speaker of the House, Jim Jordan reportedly offered a kind of mixed endorsement to Steve Scalise, who won his party’s nomination to lead the lower house.

“We can’t go to the floor unless we have 217,” Mr Jordan reportedly said. “If it’s Scalise that can get there, I’ll be for him.”

Not quite a ringing endorsement.

Even with the party nod to Mr Scalise, it’s not a sure bet that he’ll become the next speaker.

Republican infighting may seem like a domestic issue, but Rep Steve Scalise, whose colleagues nominated him to be the next Speaker of the House, said the process has impacts on a global scale, given ongoing crises like the Hamas-Israel war.

“First I want to thank my House Republican colleagues for just designating me as the speaker,” he told reporters after the secret internal vote on Wednesday. “Obviously we still have work to do. We’re going to have to go upstairs on the House floor and resolve this and get the House open again.”

One reason why the House needs to get back in gear, Mr Scalise continued, was because “we see how dangerous of a world it is, how things can change so quickly.”

“Our first resolution that we pass under Speaker Steve Scalise will make it clear that we stand with Israel,” he said.

He pointed to how the House has passed spending bills in recent days containing military funding for Israel which remain stalled in the Senate.

He also suggested that the suprise cross-border attack from Hamas on Israel underscored the need for border security changes in the US.

Rep Steve Scalise has defeated Rep Jim Jordan to win the Republican nomination to be speaker of the House.

The vote was 113-99 according to reports from outside the closed-door meeting. A loud cheer was heard by reporters.

Mr Scalise will still need to muster 217 votes on the floor of the House to become Speaker and second in line to the presidency. This will require the backing of almost all of the GOP conference — just five members could block him winning the gavel.

The triumph of Mr Scalise is especially notable given that he defeated Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate for the role…

NBC News’s Ali Vitali reports that when asked about Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan as speaker of the House, Democratic Chair Pete Aguilar said that the former is more “affable” and someone Democrats can talk with, whereas (speaking as a former member of the House select committee investigating January 6): “Jim Jordan is dangerous to our democracy.”