Posts tagged with "Speaker Mike Johnson"

House poised to pass a bill to avert a shutdown after dropping Trump voting plan

September 25, 2024

On Wednesday, September 24, the House seemed to be poised to pass a funding bill to avert a government shutdown next week after it removed a proposal demanded by Donald Trump that would require Americans nationwide to show proof of citizenship to register to vote, reports NBC News.

House Republican leaders, facing defections within their ranks, indicated that they planned to rely heavily on Democratic votes to approve the measure. If it passes, it would go to the Senate, which hopes to quickly approve it on Wednesday night, well before the October 1 shutdown deadline. Both chambers are set to adjourn this week for a lengthy recess until after the November 5 election.

The package, negotiated by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), and top Democrats, would fund the government at current levels through December 20, right before the holidays. It would also provide $231 million in additional money for the Secret Service, including for operations related to the presidential campaign, in the wake of two apparent attempts to assassinate Trump.

Trump has publicly insisted that congressional Republicans shut down the government unless they can enact the proof-of-citizenship election legislation, known as the SAVE Act, even though it’s already illegal and rare for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

But, after the House rejected a package that combined government funding and the SAVE Act last week, Johnson stripped out the Trump-backed election legislation and brought the new, mostly clean spending bill to the floor. Defending the move, Johnson and other key Republicans have argued that a GOP-led shutdown just 35 days before Election Day would amount to “political malpractice.”

Johnson has denied that he’s “defying Trump” over the voting legislation—arguing that they have been in close contact throughout the funding fight and that they both believe the SAVE Act is critical to ensuring election integrity.

“I’m not defying President Trump. I’ve spoken with him at great length, and he is very frustrated about the situation. His concern is election security, and it is mine, as well. It is all of ours,” Johnson told reporters on  Tuesday.

“I think the vast, vast majority of Congress does not want a shutdown,” said Senator John Boozman (R-Arkansas). “So, let’s get through the election and decide what we want to do.”

Research contact: @NBCNews

McCarthy says he will leave Congress at the end of the year

December 8, 2023

About two months after being ousted as Speaker, Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-California) said he would exit the House a year early. The former Speaker—who made history as the first to be ousted from that post—announced on Wednesday, December 6, that he would leave the House at the end December, but said he planned to remain engaged in Republican politics, reports The Hill.

McCarthy’s resignation—which he announced in an opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal—will bring to a close a 16-year stint in Congress in which he rose from a member of the self-proclaimed “Young Guns”—Republicans driving to build their party’s majority in the House— to the position second in line to the presidency.

It caps his spectacular downfall after just under nine months as Speaker, when the right-wing forces that he and other establishment Republicans harnessed to power their political victories ultimately rose up and ran him out.

“I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office,” McCarthy said in announcing his plans in the Journal. “The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders.”

McCarthy’s early exit, while not unexpected, creates a headache for his successor, Speaker Mike Johnson, who is struggling to run the House with a slim and dwindling majority.

Many lawmakers already have announced that  they will depart the House, citing historic dysfunction. And while many of those departing members have said they plan to serve out their current terms, those plans can often change quickly when job offers begin to materialize and a nice life outside of Congress comes into focus.

McCarthy’s imminent departure, which he announced just days before California’s December 8 filing deadline to run for re-election, will shrink the already slim Republican majority. The party’s margin in the House fell to three seats from four with the expulsion of Representative George Santos (R-New York) last week.

That leaves almost no wiggle room for Johnson, who is already dealing with a revolt from the far right for working with Democrats to keep the government funded and faces another pair of shutdown deadlines in mid-January and early February.

Governor Gavin Newsom, Democrat of California, will have 14 days after McCarthy’s final day to call a special election to fill the seat; and by state law, the election has to take place about four months later.

For McCarthy, who has struggled to adjust to life as a rank-and-file lawmaker, the early departure holds nothing but upside. Former members are banned for one year after leaving Congress from lobbying their former colleagues. By resigning this month, McCarthy can start the clock on that delay from what promises to be lucrative work in the private sector a year earlier than he would have been able to if he served out his term.

Research contact: @thehill