The House Republicans have been so dysfunctional over the last few years that once mundane tasks are celebrated like major milestones.
Every speaker vote from 1925 through 2021 ended in one ballot.
Advertisement Story continues below advertisement But Johnson’s math problem in the House has little to do with the Senate filibuster.
Story continues below advertisement The final holdouts at Friday’s speaker vote made clear that they were working to support Trump’s agenda, not oppose him.
“Speaker Johnson contends that in an environment where we have the White House and the Republican Senate, that he’s going to be able to go get the job done.
correction.
This article’s previous version stated Rep. Keith Self is the spokesperson for Oklahoma. He stands for Texas. An update has been made to this article.
Due to the dysfunction of the House Republicans in recent years, routine tasks are now hailed as significant achievements.
Between 1925 and 2021, all speaker votes were decided by a single ballot. However, following the intra-GOP battles of the 118th Congress, Mike Johnson’s reelection on Friday, receiving only one tumultuous vote, was celebrated as a victory and a sign that the divided caucus could unite in the 119th.
“We recently elected a speaker of the House and won over Republicans.”. There is a way, then,” Rep. Following the vote, Andrew Ogles (R-Tennessee), one of the far-right lawmakers who have stung Johnson, told reporters.
There are, however, additional indications that the speaker vote was only the beginning of a protracted conflict between the establishment-leaning Republicans who wish to govern in a more conventional or practical manner and a far-right group of roughly 20 conservatives.
“There are definitely going to be red lines that we need to deliver on,” the representative said. One of the final conservative Republicans to support Johnson was Chip Roy (R-Texas), he told reporters.
Republican moderates are prepared to take on Roy and others like him because they feel emboldened after Republicans won close elections that maintained their majority.
We’re sick of it. “We’ve had enough of being kind,” Rep. Nebraska Republican Don Bacon stated on Friday. After three years of dealing with these guys, we have very little patience or tolerance left. And a tiny bit of that was visible today. “”.
House Republicans will be at odds as they attempt to advance legislation to enforce stringent immigration laws, finance President-elect Donald Trump’s long-desired border wall, and lower taxes on the wealthy.
Since every Democrat is expected to vote against these measures, just as they all voted against Johnson for speaker on Friday, Johnson will only need one or two GOP votes to reach a majority, as his caucus will grow from 217 to 220 members over the course of the next year.
To get those plans through the finish line, Johnson will need more than 99 percent unity, much like Friday’s vote, which lasted nearly an additional hour as Trump and Johnson attempted to coerce Republicans.
But over the next six months or so, Congress will have to pass a number of bills that will almost certainly need strong Democratic support.
The Senate only has 53 Republicans, so Democratic votes are required there due to the chamber’s rules, which require 60 votes to end debate on most legislation. Payments for federal agencies and the lifting of the Treasury’s borrowing cap are required, and they must be made by mid-March and late spring or early summer, respectively.
However, the Senate filibuster is not directly related to Johnson’s math issue in the House. No matter who is in office, at least a dozen hard-line conservatives will not support government spending or raising the debt ceiling. Johnson will have to ask House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (New York) for Democratic support unless those far-right lawmakers change their minds. When Johnson does so, the legislation will incorporate Democratic priorities that are politically apoplectic for Roy and a few dozen House Freedom Caucus members.
Just before Christmas, Johnson had to deal with that exact conundrum when he took a straightforward extension of government funding and negotiated a wide range of policy riders that both Republicans and Democrats had been requesting.
Following the release of the approximately 1,500-page package, which was later reduced to a less ambitious bill, conservatives and even establishment Republicans erupted. “We cannot tolerate any more of the absurdity that occurred prior to Christmas,” Roy stated on Friday, alluding to the funding bill.
11 Freedom Caucus members issued a letter outlining their demands, which range from aspirational (increasing the number of legislative work days) to next-to-impossible (“secure the border to stop the flow of illegal aliens completely”).
It acted as a thinly veiled warning that Johnson might become like Kevin McCarthy, who was stripped of his position as speaker after less than nine months due to his failure to uphold the private agreements he negotiated in order to win the gavel.
Roy informed reporters that there would be repercussions if something similar occurred just before Christmas.
Put in Rep. Thomas Massie (Kentucky) was the only Republican to vote against Johnson; he was one of a dozen far-right members who made Johnson aware that he was acting too loosely.
Johnson may need Trump to continue being a unifying force who insists that lawmakers support his choice for speaker and assist in passing important legislation if he wants to maintain his hold on power.
Trump’s role as a unifying force who demands that everyone support his choice for speaker and important legislation is nearly key to the optimistic Republican outlook.
“I do believe that President Trump’s presence in the executive office will be different,” Rep. As he left the House floor, Freedom Caucus member Elijah Crane (R-Arizona) said.
Trump, however, has a propensity to focus on a small number of policy issues, like border security and tariffs, and to assign other issues to Johnson, who will likely need to make the kinds of agreements with Democrats that infuriate critics like Roy.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wisconsin), Johnson’s predecessor, also learned this lesson during Trump’s first two years in office, when Republicans also held control of the Senate and the House. Ryan was regularly required to negotiate agency funding bills with Trump aides, congressional leaders, and Appropriations Committee members. The president approved of these agreements, but the Freedom Caucus members fiercely opposed them.
Back then, rebellions were largely just noise because Ryan had a sizable majority with a buffer of more than 20 seats. Now, a small group of nine people could remove Johnson under the regulations that were approved on Friday.
“The attitude of the dissidents is still unknown,” Rep. The House’s dean and senior committee member, Harold Rogers (R-Kentucky), stated. Some members of our party will not support any appropriations legislation. We’re still in the woods, then. “”.
Bacon, who won a district that was nearly five percentage points closer to Vice President Kamala Harris’s, said Trump and Johnson should exclude these far-right voters.
Johnson was the best that anyone could do. These guys didn’t provide a substitute. He paused to find the appropriate description before continuing, “So they’re just ….”. “They enjoy making fun of their own team.”. They take pleasure in the fact that that is what occurs. And when we don’t perform well, they get upset. “”.
It’s possible that Johnson’s opposition group anticipated that the volatile Trump would become impatient with the glacial pace of his agenda on Capitol Hill and try to hold Johnson accountable for the setbacks by letting him win Friday’s vote.
The remaining holdouts at Friday’s speaker vote made it apparent that they were trying to further Trump’s agenda rather than stand against it.
“This was about how, as the House with a very narrow majority, we support President Trump,” Rep. After voting for another Republican, Keith Self (R-Texas) said eventually. “How will that occur?”.
During the hour-long pause in the vote on Friday, when Johnson was two votes short of the 218 required to win an outright majority, Self said he had two conversations with the president-elect.
He or Rep. Trump never threatened them. Self claimed that Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina), who was also on the phone with him, was unable to provide further details about their conversation. To give Johnson the majority, Norman and Self eventually traveled to the House and changed their votes.
Johnson convinced Roy, one of six far-right Republicans who initially abstained from voting during the alphabetic roll call, that supporting him would mean supporting Trump’s policies.
“Speaker Johnson argues that he will be able to go get the job done in a setting where we have the Republican Senate and the White House. We will therefore give him a chance,” he said.
There was a warning attached to that opportunity. Roy declared, “At this point, excuses are not acceptable.”. “You can spot it when you see it, so act quickly. “.”.
