Kevin McCarthy's far-right critics have been handed crucial committee positions.

Kevin McCarthy spent two weeks scratching and clawing for the support he needed from his fellow Republicans to be elected Speaker of the House. It took a modern record of 15 ballots cast over four days, but he won in an after-midnight vote following a near riot on the chamber floor.

To get the support of the 21 Republicans who stood in his way, the California congressman made a number of substantial compromises, some of which were made public and others which were kept confidential.

Allowing conservative hardliners to determine many of his party's policy priorities, promising to fight for huge government expenditure cutbacks, and making it easier to provoke a vote to oust him from the speakership were among them.

However, perhaps the greatest tangible prize for the obstinate holdouts is only now beginning to emerge. Legislative authority is wielded not on the House floor, but in congressional committees, where influence flows through public hearings and closed-door sessions.

After 15 rounds of voting, Kevin McCarthy was elected US House Speaker.

Why these Republicans are refusing to support Kevin McCarthy for US House Speaker

Some McCarthy opponents said that they were informed in the run-up to the Speaker vote that their intransigence would result in their committee seats being withdrawn, thereby excommunicating them from the party.

Instead, his most vociferous critics from early January have risen to positions of power.

Here's a look at the main committee assignments given to the Republican rebels, and what they could imply for the House of Representatives over the next two years.

Biden's watchdogs

The House's key investigative body, the Government Oversight Committee, is set to be a hotbed of activity in the incoming Republican-controlled chamber. Chair James Comer has already promised to use his authority to launch investigations into Joe Biden's administration, including inquiries into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the president's and his son Hunter's personal finances, and the handling of classified documents recently discovered at the president's Delaware home and a former office in Washington, DC.

Given the committee's combative tone, it's no wonder that several of Mr. McCarthy's most vociferous opponents - who have chastised him for being too passive in confronting Democrats - sought positions on it. Many of them got their wish, assuring that the impending oversight hearings will be especially painful for Mr. Biden and the Democrats.

McCarthy skeptics The panel includes Lauren Boebert, Scott Perry, Paul Gosar, Anna Paulina Luna, and Byron Donalds. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the conspiracy-obsessed Georgia congresswoman, is as well. Democrats had withdrawn her committee assignments while they were in the majority because of her anti-Semitic remarks and threats against Democratic leaders.

The birthplace of impeachment

The House Judiciary Committee, which is entrusted with launching impeachment proceedings against administration officials, might become another significant stage in the coming days.

Republican hardliners have already called for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to be impeached for his handling of the surge of unlawful migration at the US-Mexico border. The first hearing before the Judiciary Committee on the topic might take place within a month.

If the House votes to pursue impeachment proceedings against Mr. Biden, which is a distinct possibility given the intensity of Republican hostility toward the president, they will begin in the Judiciary Committee, which is led by prominent Biden critic Jim Jordan of Ohio.

Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who led the anti-McCarthy campaign two weeks ago, was appointed to the committee, as were Chip Roy of Texas, Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, and Andy Biggs, the Arizona congressman who was a close confidante to Donald Trump during his attempts to challenge his 2020 presidential election defeat.

Ruffled feathers and newfound might

Republican holdouts were also appointed to a number of less prominent but equally crucial panels.

Mr. Donalds of Florida, who served as Mr. McCarthy's replacement as a speaker, was appointed to the Steering Committee, which assigns committee assignments to House members. He and three other Republican dissidents are on the Financial Services Committee, which supervises the banking industry (and thus opens the door to very deep-pocketed political donors).

Mike Cloud of Texas and Andrew Clyde of Georgia have been appointed to the Appropriations Committee, which oversees all federal spending. Andy Harris of Maryland was appointed chair of the committee's agricultural and drug subcommittee. There is no better venue for the hard-line budget-cutters who comprised the majority of Mr. McCarthy's opposition to wield power.

However, Mr. McCarthy's seat reshuffle has not been without peril. With a four-seat majority in the House, the new Speaker must keep his Republican colleagues pleased, which has not always been easy. Vern Buchanan of Florida, who was next in line for the influential House Ways and Means tax-writing committee, was allegedly enraged that he was passed over for the position by a close McCarthy buddy.

According to Puck News, Mr. Buchanan accused Mr. McCarthy of orchestrating the snub in an obscenity-laced tirade, and he vowed to resign in protest, handing the Speaker an even slimmer House majority.

More stories of discontent inside the ranks may surface as the new balance of power in the House takes root and the Speaker tries not simply to hold on to power, but to successfully use it.