The inability of House Republicans to elect a new speaker of the House has forced the leadership of committees to postpone or shorten planned hearings.

The latest casualty was a Thursday hearing on explicit material and books in public schools by the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, which adjourned shortly after the witnesses finished their opening statements and an abbreviated question and answer portion that saw only two lawmakers from each party ask questions. The hearing was forced to adjourn for a Republican conference meeting.

JIM JORDAN WON'T HOLD THIRD BALLOT, WILL BACK TEMPORARY POWERS FOR MCHENRY

The House of Representatives has been without a speaker since eight Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) voted to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the speakership 16 days ago. Since then, House Republicans have scrambled to find a replacement. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has failed to secure the job after two floor votes this week as a handful of Republicans have denied the conservative firebrand the 217 votes necessary to earn the job.

Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL), the chairman of the subcommittee, told the Washington Examiner in an interview after the hearing that the Republican leadership "threw us a curveball" and scheduled a meeting 45 minutes after the hearing began.

"We thought it'd be a two-hour meeting," Bean said as he rushed to the conference meeting. "It's a bummer, but I've learned to be flexible in Congress ... the House is designed to function when there is a leader ... so I will gladly yield and have an abbreviated meeting."

The Thursday hearing was the second time in as many days a subcommittee hearing of the House Education and Workforce Committee was affected by the speaker saga. On Wednesday, the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions postponed a planned hearing on "Protecting Workers and Small Businesses from Biden's Attack on Worker Free Choice and Economic Growth.”

Other committees have been affected too. The House Homeland Security Committee postponed a hearing on Iran that was scheduled for Wednesday, and the Energy and Commerce Committee postponed a subcommittee hearing on safety measures for athletes.

House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) told the Washington Examiner that despite the uncertainty around the House calendar amid the speaker vacancy, she did not want to reschedule the hearing because the witnesses had come from out of town to testify.

"I didn't want to be unkind to the people who had scheduled this," she said.

When asked if there was a possibility of a second hearing on the issue of pornographic books in school libraries, she said the speaker vacancy was making it difficult and "it's really going to depend on ... how quickly the speaker situation gets resolved."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Foxx said the chaos wrought by the speaker vacancy was "frustrating" but said the GOP conference is "trying to work through it."

"If we measure things on a scale of 1 to 10, frustration right now is probably 25," she said. "I'm sitting there in this hearing thinking of people I need to talk to, appointments I've made, and lots of other things that aren't getting done."