House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Newsmax on Tuesday that he feels "real confident" that the seats being vacated by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., are "both safe" and will be filled by Republicans in special elections.
Stefanik and Waltz have been tapped by the incoming Trump administration to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser, respectively.
"I'm so proud of Elise," Scalise said during an appearance on "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "I've been talking to her for a while about the opportunity to serve as U.N. Ambassador if she was so chosen, which she was, by President [-elect Donald] Trump, and I think she's going to do a great service to President Trump and the nation in that role.
"But it is a safe Republican seat. The law mandates that [New York] Gov. [Kathy] Hochul has to call a special election within, I believe, 70 days of it becoming vacant, and there's no party primary — the party leaders pick their nominees — so it's going to be a quick process, meaning, we'll get a replacement soon.
"As far as Florida goes, they have a similar law with [Gov.] Ron DeSantis having the opportunity to call that election, I think, within 60 days for the Waltz opening," he continued. "And, you know, we know Ron is going to do everything in his power to fill that, to get that seat filled quickly.
"So, look, I feel real confident in the ability to get those spots. But it means for a few months, maybe two months, three months, we might have a smaller majority. But we've been there before.
"You know, we are at a four-seat majority today. We were down to a one-seat majority at the beginning of this year, and we still got our agenda moved."
Asked about the upcoming December deadline for a continuing resolution to fund the federal government, Scalise said "that conversation needs to happen soon."
"If you go back to 2017, the last time President Trump came into the White House, there was a similar situation where government funding wasn't finished by the previous Congress, and some of that was dumped on him and it kind of delayed his administration," he said. "It held him back from doing some of the things he wanted to do early on.
"You can go look, those first few months, Congress and the president weren't able to get any real victories in those first few months because he was bogged down with helping resolve last year's business.
"So, hopefully we get this worked out, and he comes in with a clean slate, a fresh slate, where he can move his agenda in those first 100 days and I think you'll see a lot of effort to do that."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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