Last week the House of Representative voted Speaker Kevin McCarthy out of office with no clear path for a divided Republican caucus to quickly select a replacement.

This begs the question of how the U.S. government will avert a government shutdown by the next budget deadline rapidly approaching in mid-November.

The immediate cause of McCarthy’s ouster was the stop gap legislation he steered through the House to avert a government shutdown.

Matt Gaetz, unhappy with the deal, requested a vote to remove McCarthy, and so an unusual coalition of the most conservative Republicans and the entire Democratic caucus was able to remove McCarthy as speaker.

Is there a way the House can move forward on the budget without a speaker? Chuck Todd, chief political analyst for NBC News, in his appearance on PBS’s Washington Week with The Atlantic stated that it can be done. Todd explained that a House procedure called a discharge petition would allow the House to vote on legislation simply with a petition signed by 218 House members, a simple majority.

Wikipedia gives a history of the discharge petition and instances where it has been used in the past. The discharge petition allowed the House to vote on the Firearm Owners Protection Act which passed, the Balanced Budget Amendment which did not pass, and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act which passed.

Therefore, it is possible for a union of moderate Republicans and Democrats to keep the country from a shutdown that would have disastrous effects to our nation and globe.

However, one stipulation of the discharge petition may create problems for its use in the current situation. All signers’ names on the petition must be made public from the start. This means it will create political pressure and, in the nation’s current political climate, possible violence towards anyone signing.

At a time when the stakes are so high, will enough representatives put their country before party, career, and possibly life? That is the real question.

Karen Christy is a copy editor at the Times Observer.