What's next now that Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a motion to vacate from Marjorie Taylor Greene

Table Of Content

• Here’s what to watch for in the 14th round of voting for House speaker.
• Jordan is making progress with New York Republicans — but it is still not nearly enough to win speakership
• Newly sworn-in congresswoman says House speaker vote unfolded "just as it should"
• List of living former speakers[change change source]
• His role in promoting 2020 election denial
• DOES A MOTION TO VACATE HAVE THE VOTES TO PASS?

Others railed against Mr. Emmer’s vote in favor of a stopgap spending bill put forward by Mr. McCarthy, the speaker at the time, to avert a government shutdown. Still others said he was insufficiently loyal to Mr. Trump, because he voted to certify the results of the 2020 election won by President Biden. Any candidate for speaker can lose only a handful of votes and still win the speakership because Republicans hold such a small majority in the House.

Lauren Boebert Gets Support for Becoming House Speaker - Newsweek

Lauren Boebert Gets Support for Becoming House Speaker.

Posted: Sun, 21 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Here’s what to watch for in the 14th round of voting for House speaker.

Mr. McCarthy watched as the hard-right flank of that majority ran John A. Boehner of Ohio from his speakership in 2015 and blocked his own first attempt at securing the job, after 40 of its members announced that they would not support him, questioning his conservative credentials. Mr. Gaetz said on Tuesday that lawmakers should not give the post to somebody willing to sell “shares of himself to get” it. WASHINGTON — For days as hard-right lawmakers voted again and again to block him from becoming speaker, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California sat on the House floor with a grin plastered to his face. But after flipping their votes to Mr. McCarthy on Friday, some of the former holdouts said they had been assured by an emerging framework, which is expected to cap the size of government funding bills, call for spending cuts and allow for amendments on the House floor. They had demanded the ability to hold a vote on the House floor for each individual earmark. In an effort to win them over, Mr. McCarthy has offered to give rank-and-file lawmakers more influence in the process of writing spending bills.

Jordan is making progress with New York Republicans — but it is still not nearly enough to win speakership

Johnson received an "F" grade from Republicans for Ukraine on its GOP Congressional Report Card. "We'll be talking about the support and what's necessary to get it," Johnson said. "We have to ensure Vladimir Putin is not successful, and I think all the House Republicans are united in that cause." Stefanik praised Johnson as a "man of deep faith" who is a "titan" on the Judiciary Committee and "dedicated member" of the Armed Services Committee.

House Speaker Johnson pushes ahead on aid for Ukraine, Israel - The Associated Press

House Speaker Johnson pushes ahead on aid for Ukraine, Israel.

Posted: Tue, 16 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Newly sworn-in congresswoman says House speaker vote unfolded "just as it should"

Former President Donald J. Trump made a crucially timed call to Representative Matt Gaetz on Friday night after the Florida congressman voted “present” and sunk Kevin McCarthy’s 14th effort to be elected House speaker. Those compromises delivered a breakthrough for Mr. McCarthy, who in votes on Friday afternoon won support from a sizable chunk of the Republicans who had consistently refused to back him — though he remained short of the majority to win. Jeffries now leads the minority party in the House, succeeding California's Nancy Pelosi, who served as speaker in the prior session of Congress when Democrats held the majority. In addition to being the first Black lawmaker to attain such a position, Jeffries is also the first person elected to lead House Democrats to be born after the end of World War II. Now that a House speaker has been selected following a days-long stalemate and members have finally been sworn in, the chamber can look toward picking back up business and organizing GOP-led committees.

It’s just another example of how the divisions within the GOP have reached its upper ranks. In particular, there has been tension between Scalise supporters and Jordan's and McCarthy’s camps as the speakership crisis plays out. Gaetz also addressed reports that McCarthy had yelled at him during a House GOP conference meeting earlier today and that Illinois Rep. Mike Bost then cursed at him. The well-respected No. 2 Republican, Eric Cantor of Virginia, had lost his primary in 2014. The No. 3, McCarthy, soon ran aground over remarks in a TV interview and lacked the votes to be speaker. The party settled on Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who had not sought the gavel but agreed to take it.

But this time around several Democrats have indicated they would cross the aisle to support Johnson and frustrate Greene & Co. if it came to a vote. Democratic leaders have indicated they are open to this, and it essentially repeats the strategy that allowed Johnson to pass the Ukraine portion of the aid bill earlier this month. Two colleagues had spoken up to say they would join Greene in such a vote, giving her enough to defeat the speaker if all the chamber's Democrats voted to do the same. That's what the Democrats did when a motion to vacate the chair ousted the last Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, last fall. It remains unclear what support Greene’s resolution would have if she called it up for a vote.

His role in promoting 2020 election denial

And by the end of the day, with the majority of the detractors finally coalescing around Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Gaetz appeared to have softened his tone. A firm supporter of President Joe Biden’s agenda, Clark is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. She is an advocate of gun reform, Medicare for All and raising the federal minimum wage.

Founded in 1993, The Motley Fool is a financial services company dedicated to making the world smarter, happier, and richer. The Motley Fool reaches millions of people every month through our premium investing solutions, free guidance and market analysis on Fool.com, top-rated podcasts, and non-profit The Motley Fool Foundation. Jordan, the current GOP nominee for speaker, and McCarthy had initially spoken up in favor of the idea during the closed-door meeting. CNN previously reported that some Jordan holdouts had refused to meet with the speaker designee or to take his calls. When the House returns from its recess next week, Speaker Mike Johnson is now widely expected to resume his duties without immediately facing a motion to oust him. “They’re [sic] plan is keep funding the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and when that doesn’t work, after all the Ukrainian men have been slaughtered, next they will put American troops on the ground.

Johnson wins nomination

Washington — Rep. Mike Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, won election as the new speaker of the House on Wednesday, ending three weeks of chaos since Rep. Kevin McCarthy's historic ouster. Greene filed a motion to vacate the speaker more than a month ago, but has not yet taken the steps needed to force a vote. So far, two other House Republicans have publicly backed the effort — Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona. A number of conservatives, however, opposed the legislation — and sending further aid to Ukraine in particular. GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said that Johnson “betrayed” Republican voters following passage of the foreign aid and has threatened to call a vote on his ouster if he doesn’t resign.

Some of her colleagues, who voted to oust McCarthy, threw cold water on the idea, saying they were not ready to support a motion to vacate Johnson. Proponents of allowing a single lawmaker to file the motion said it promotes accountability, noting its long history in the House. The tool was used memorably in 2015 against then-Speaker John Boehner when then-Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a Republican who later became Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff, introduced a resolution to declare the speaker’s office vacant. The current rules of the House allow for any single lawmaker — Democrat or Republican — to make a “motion to vacate the chair,” essentially a vote to oust the speaker through a privileged resolution.

And just shy of his fourth anniversary in the job, he was voted out by the full House Republican conference in December 1998. The first person on that list would be named speaker pro tempore and their first order of business would be to hold an election for a new speaker. That event requires the House to vote as many times as it takes for a candidate to receive the majority of those present and voting for speaker. The speaker is selected by the full House membership, though the majority party’s voting power ensures that the role is occupied by one of their own. When Scalise had been the GOP nominee for speaker earlier this month, Jordan had offered to give his nominating speech.

Technically, he died as speaker, but his party lost its majority before the next Congress convened and elected a Democrat to the job. The next two Republican speakers would be John Boehner, elevated to the job by the GOP recapture of the House in the "Tea Party" election of 2010. Boehner worked hard to fashion budget deals with both a Democratic President Barack Obama and a Democratic Senate. But his efforts alienated some in his own ranks who in 2015 formed an insurgent group known as the House Freedom Caucus. Increasingly exasperated with his untenable predicament, Boehner simply resigned in October of that year.

The night before Friday’s voting, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R, Fla., who introduced the motion to oust McCarthy, echoed those sentiments, warning against trying to oust Johnson. Greene, who became a McCarthy ally late in his tenure, has been skeptical of Johnson’s speakership from the beginning. While she criticized her fellow far-right colleagues for toppling McCarthy, she herself had warned Johnson for months that she would try to remove him in a similar fashion if he were to push ahead with a package to support Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion.

An earlier version of this article misstated the number of votes Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana received in House Republicans’ internal election to choose a speaker nominee. He has also opposed continued funding for the war in Ukraine, which has emerged as a bitter fault line in the G.O.P. and in the spending battles that any new speaker will have to navigate in the coming days. Representative Mike Johnson, a little-known social conservative from Louisiana, emerged on Tuesday night as the latest contender for the post after Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the No. 3 House Republican, dropped his bid only hours after securing the nomination. Mr. Emmer’s downfall followed a swift backlash from the right, including former President Donald J. Trump, that left his candidacy in shambles and the G.O.P. as divided as ever.

At other times, more junior members may be assigned to preside to give them experience with the rules and procedures of the House. The speaker may also designate, with approval of the House, a speaker pro tempore for special purposes, such as designating a representative whose district is near Washington, D.C. From early in its existence, the speaker's primary function had been to keep order and enforce rules.

Furthermore, when no candidate received an Electoral College majority in the 1824 presidential election, causing the president to be elected by the House, Speaker Clay threw his support to John Quincy Adams instead of Andrew Jackson, thereby ensuring Adams' victory. Following Clay's retirement in 1825, the power of the speakership once again began to decline, despite speakership elections becoming increasingly bitter. As the Civil War approached, several sectional factions nominated their own candidates, often making it difficult for any candidate to attain a majority. In 1855 and again in 1859, for example, the contest for speaker lasted for two months before the House achieved a result. For example, from 1839 to 1863 there were eleven speakers, only one of whom served for more than one term. James K. Polk is the only speaker of the House who was later elected president of the United States.