The race is on to elect a new House speaker showdown following the historic ouster of Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday.
Two Republicans have officially thrown their hats into the ring ahead of the party hoping to choose a new leader next week.
A roll call vote is underway on the motion to vacate, which will decide whether McCarthy will keep his gavel.
If successful, it will be a historic moment. The motion to vacate has only been used once before -- more than a century ago -- and failed.
It would take as few as five Republican defections to oust McCarthy as speaker, if all Democrats vote against him.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise also stood up to support McCarthy during the debate on the motion to vacate, saying now isn't the time to stop the progress House Republicans have made.
"When we go back to January, as many people have, we knew that it was going to be a narrow majority," Scalise said. "We also knew it wasn't going to be easy. How many of us came here because we thought this job was going to be easy?"
Scalise continued, "One thing we did know is that if we were going to finally start confronting the problems that had been ignored for years and years and years, we had to change the way this place worked. And one thing Speaker McCarthy embraced from Day 1 is to start making those kind of changes to this institution -- opening up the process, allowing members to be more engaged, having amendments come to the floor, single-subject bills, doing appropriations bills."
"Speaker McCarthy has been leading at the top of the level to make sure we have the tools to do our jobs," he added.
Gaetz said earlier this week he'd support Scalise for speaker and believed other Republicans would, too, telling reporters he thinks "very highly" of the No. 2 House Republican.
During the debate, after initially introducing speeches from a few other Republicans who are backing his motion, including Andy Biggs and Bob Good, Gaetz has since used his time to personally respond to each of the pro-McCarthy speeches being made by other lawmakers.
Those responses have sometimes been as brief as simply disputing the common refrain from McCarthy's backers: that moving to oust him is a short-sighted and punitive act that won't help the conference accomplish its goals.
Not so, Gaetz has continually said as he repeats his argument: McCarthy must go.
-ABC News' Adam Carlson
Right before debate began on the motion to vacate, Gaetz was seen trying to use the microphones on the Republican side of the chamber.
But he was blocked by McCarthy allies and aides, who shooed him to the Democratic side of the chamber.
McCarthy is sitting in the second row on the Republican side of the chamber as debate continues.
