Idaho Congressman Russ Fulcher weighs in on upcoming House speaker vote

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - Two Idaho Congressmen are slated to vote for or against House Speaker nominee Jim Jordan Tuesday.

While there are still some Republican holdouts on voting for Jordan, Congressman Russ Fulcher (ID-01) has thrown his support behind the nominee.

Fulcher spoke with us Monday. He says he thinks Republicans can get Jordan to the speakership, but it might take alleviating concerns of holdouts, as well as more than one round of voting.

"Tonight, we will learn probably with a little bit more clarity of who is yet undecided and what some of their further concerns are, and so I'll be working with them," Fulcher said. "Jim has has scheduled a session on the floor tomorrow at noon, which means we're going to vote. And my guess is, is that it will probably take more than one round, hopefully not the 15 that it took with Kevin [McCarthy]."

Fulcher also spoke about the urgency of getting a Speaker voted in.

"Constitutionally, we cannot conduct business on the floor of the U.S. House without a speaker, so we have got to get this done," he said.

Fulcher also outlined what he would like to see as the first order of business when a Speaker is elected.

"We need to get the resolution in support of Israel out there. We have hostages now, and Hamas knew about the Speaker void. I'm not saying they purposely timed it just around that, but they follow our actions very, very closely. And their objective in Israel is not just to wipe out Israel, but it's to pull other countries, including the US, into this war. And that's why the heinous acts, that's why the hostages. But it does force us to act. And so we will. And it forces Israel, of course, to act. And they are and they will. And so that's probably the first order of business just because lives are at stake right now," he said.

We have reached out to Congressman Mike Simpson (ID-02) and have not heard back from his office.