As the new Congress convened the first week of January, from the very outset, the many challenges facing the House of Representatives as to how it would move forward on legislation became immediately apparent. The long battle to elect Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as Speaker, which took 15 ballots — the most ballots to elect a Speaker since 1923, 100 years ago — was a microcosm of how fractious and complicated moving legislation in the House will be during this two-year 118th Congress.