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House Republicans don’t know if they will be holding a speaker’s race or a contest for minority leader come November, but that isn’t stopping them from preparing for the former. 

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the leading candidate to replace retiring Speaker Paul D. Ryan, needs more time to build sufficient support to win a still-hypothetical speaker’s race. The same goes for other members eyeing the position.

Two twists emerged Friday in the leadership race to replace retiring Speaker Paul D. Ryan. House Freedom Caucus founding member Jim Jordan said he’d consider a run while Ryan endorsed Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

“There is no speaker’s race right now,” Jordan told reporters. “Paul Ryan is the speaker. If and when there is, I’ve been urged by colleagues to consider that and I am definitely open to that. Right now though the focus has got to be on the next six months, us keeping the majority.”

House Republican leaders made moves Thursday to give the appearance that there won’t be any infighting about who should replace retiring Speaker Paul D. Ryan as head of the conference. Don’t be fooled.

The race to replace Ryan is not over — unless Republicans lose the majority in November. In that scenario, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy would have the insider track to being elected minority leader since it would only require a simple majority vote of the GOP conference.

Speaker Paul D. Ryan insists he’s not giving up his gavel before November, despite a push from some members of his conference to avoid a protracted leadership battle. 

“I don’t think most members want me to do that,” the Wisconsin Republican said on “CBS This Morning.”

Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s decision to “run through the tape” and wait until the end of his term to exit Congress makes an already complicated race for his leadership position even more so.

With rumors about Ryan’s potential exit from Congress circulating for the past few months, potential successors like House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana had begun quietly positioning themselves for a leadership battle.

Paul D. Ryan said he plans to remain speaker of the House through the end of the year when he plans to retire and indicated he will eventually endorse someone to succeed him.

“I have great confidence in this leadership team. That’s one thing that I’m really proud of,” Ryan said when asked who he thought should be the next speaker.

President Donald Trump and congressional Republican leaders, frustrated they had to work with Democrats to pass a fiscal 2018 omnibus spending measure, are mulling a way for their party to effectively cut some of the funds they just approved. 

The idea would be to deploy lesser-used provisions of the 1974 budget law to roll back spending by impounding some of the appropriated funds.

Updated 1:25 p.m. | Rep. Mark Amodei, who dropped a bombshell Monday about a “rumor” that Speaker Paul D. Ryan might soon resign, knows comments like that are not made without consequence. He said so himself last week.

“I’m responsible for what I’m saying right now. Welcome to the world where words have impact,” the Nevada Republican told the Los Angeles Times in reference to a Reno high school student who used curse words when he called Amodei’s office, urging action on gun control. The school principal suspended the student after a staffer for the congressman reported the call. Amodei defended the staffer.

The nearly six-month delayed fiscal 2018 omnibus spending bill could be brought to the House floor next week, but appropriators are still encountering major obstacles in drafting a bipartisan bill — even with unrelated landmines cleared. 

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has said he would like to bring the omnibus to the floor next week, but during a week-end colloquy with House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, he did not announce it as a definite part of the upcoming floor schedule. Rather, he noted action on the spending package was “possible.”

House Republican leaders on Tuesday announced their legislative response to a mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead — a bill to create a federal grant program for schools to implement threat assessment protocols. But Democrats are already calling the measure insufficient. 

The House will vote next week on a bill by Florida GOP Rep. John Rutherford, called the STOP School Violence Act, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said.