*Nope. I wasn't completely wrong; more correct than wrong. What happened today is quite literally without precedent, including on scope of the speaker pro tem's power.
“The House is on untested ground,” said Sarah Binder, who studies congressional and legislative politics at the Brookings Institution.
She said McHenry can only fulfill duties that may be “necessary and appropriate” as speaker pro tempore pending an election of a speaker, but he cannot do much else.
“Prevailing view is that … McHenry can only exercise powers of speaker towards the end of conducting new speaker election,” she said in an email. “There are other experts outside the House who read the clause a bit more broadly to suggest that ‘necessary and appropriate’ could be broader than just overseeing an election.”
Binder said it seems leaders on Capitol Hill appear to be coalescing around that more limited interpretation, meaning McHenry’s powers could be narrow.
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Okay, COMPLETELY wrong again. No problem:
The speaker pro tempore is imbued with all the powers of an elected speaker of the House.
Except being third in line to the presidency.