BREAKING: Kevin McCarthy has been elected House speaker after the longest speaker contest in 164 years.

 By Ruzeki, Shadow News 

First Published at 1:10 PM EAT, Sat January 7, 2023 

This story was updated 

What we're covering

• Rep. Kevin McCarthy has been elected House speaker after multiple days of negotiations and 15 rounds of voting. 
• His election followed a chaotic night on the House floor, including an extraordinary confrontation between McCarthy and Rep. Matt Gaetz during the 14th round of voting.
• This was the longest speaker contest in 164 years. 
• Democrat Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has made history, becoming the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress. 

Now that a House speaker has been selected following a dayslong stalemate and members have finally been sworn in, the chamber can look toward picking back up business and organizing GOP-led committees.

Every new Congress must pass a new set of House rules, and doing so will be the top of the 118th Congress’ to-do list when the House reconvenes Monday.

With House Republicans’ majority, comes a newfound power to set the agenda — investigative and legislative.

Legislative agenda: House Republicans will be limited in their ability to pass bills through Congress with Democrats in control of the Senate and the White House — where the president can exercise veto power over legislation. Still, House Republicans will be able to push messaging bills that highlight their agenda.

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with CNN ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy outlined his plans for power.

Those plans include:

• Tackling inflation
• Rising crime and border security
• He also left the door open to launching eventual impeachment proceedings, which some of his members have already begun to call for

There will also be some must-pass policy issues — like funding the government — that will test the ability of Republicans and Democrats to work together. 

Members of the 118th Congress were sworn in early Saturday morning after days of deadlock in the House speaker election that prevented them from assuming their roles.

The new Congress features a record-setting number of women and several history makers, from the House's first Gen-Z lawmaker to the longest-serving woman in congressional history.

Newly-elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was sworn in before the members, and now Congress can resume business.

The chamber is expected to vote on a House Rules package Monday.