A look at Mike Johnson and the troubled history of Republican speakers : NPR

Table Of Content

• d Republican joins motion to oust Mike Johnson as House speaker
• Notable elections
• Johnson Outlines Plan for Ukraine Aid; House Could Act Within Weeks
• House SpeakerJohnson Elected Speaker of the House, Ending Weeks of Chaos
• Votes on the Foreign Aid Bills
• ‘How the hell does that even happen?’ McCarthy exits Congress amid confusion over who can run to replace him
• McCarthy tells House Republicans he will not run again for speaker, GOP lawmaker says

It includes member of the Los Angeles City Council, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, California State Assembly, California State Senate, United States House of Representatives, and Los Angeles citywide officials. Basil Rodriguez, 23, argued Wednesday that Johnson and any lawmaker who backed sending aid to Israel is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Palestinians. The hearing launched further investigations by the committee and continual hearings to combat antisemitism on college campus, ending in Shafik’s Capitol Hill testimony last Wednesday.

d Republican joins motion to oust Mike Johnson as House speaker

Information about the source, type, amount, or value of the incomes of representatives, officers, and candidates. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. The outgoing speaker will usually join the successor at the speaker’s chair, where they will pass the gavel as a nod to the peaceful transition of power from one party leader to another.

Notable elections

The Speaker of the House’s Constitutional Role - National Constitution Center

The Speaker of the House’s Constitutional Role.

Posted: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Friday night, Mr. McCarthy remained one vote short of what he needed to seal the deal. Representative-elect Eli Crane of Arizona and Representative Matt Rosendale of Montana — the two holdouts who seemed most likely to move — both voted against him, leaving his fate in the hands of his lead tormentor, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. The floor fight dragged on for the better part of a week, the longest since 1859, and paralyzed the House, with lawmakers stripped of their security clearances because they could not be sworn in as official members of Congress until a speaker was chosen. Despite the divisions on display, Mr. McCarthy also emphasized the theme of unity in a speech after taking the speaker’s gavel, pledging open debate and an open door to both Republicans and Democrats. After a spectacle of arm-twisting on the House floor, Kevin McCarthy won over just enough of the far-right rebels he needed to become speaker.

Johnson Outlines Plan for Ukraine Aid; House Could Act Within Weeks

But many previous speakers, including outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have ascended to the dais with fewer votes than that, as some members voted present instead of calling out a name. Every lawmaker voting “present” lowers the overall tally needed to reach a majority. 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. In a secret-ballot vote on Tuesday night, Mr. Johnson got 128 votes, with 44 Republicans voting for nominees not on the ballot, including 43 for Mr. McCarthy, whom many view as unfairly ousted.

The Israel bill includes about $4.4bn to replenish depleted US supplies given to Israel; $4bn for missile defense, including the much-vaunted Iron Dome, and $1.2bn for the Iron Beam; and $3.5bn to help Israel buy weapons. There are also provisions to make it easier to supply Israel with US munitions held in other countries. Sergii Marchenko, the Ukrainian finance minister, pointed to the legislation’s provision for budget support. For the last few years, congressional Republicans have been split into factions that are not ideological in the traditional sense.

The House elects a new speaker by roll call vote when it first convenes after a general election for its two-year term, or when a speaker dies, resigns or is removed from the position intra-term. The speaker’s visit marks the first time the top representative in the U.S. House has visited a college campus amid ongoing protests that have led to tense exchanges between pro-Palestinian and Jewish students. More than 100 people on Columbia’s campus were recently arrested and charged with trespassing, with several students who took part in the protest facing suspension just weeks before year’s end.

California Rep. Kevin McCarthy has no business in Congress’ highest office or the presidential line of succession. Her late father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., served as Mayor of Baltimore for twelve years, after representing the city for five terms in Congress. She and her husband, Paul Pelosi, a native of San Francisco, have five grown children and ten grandchildren. Currently serving as Speaker Emerita of the House and as the Representative for California’s 11th Congressional District, she is fighting For The People to lower costs, grow paychecks and create jobs.

The speaker of the House is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The House elects its speaker at the beginning of a new Congress (i.e. biennially, after a general election) or when a speaker dies, resigns, or removed from the position intra-term. Since 1839, the House elected speakers by roll call.[1] Traditionally, each party's caucus or conference selects a candidate for the speakership from among its senior leaders prior to the roll call. 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.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene files motion to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson - NPR

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene files motion to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Posted: Fri, 22 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

In Congress, Mr. Johnson has voted for a national abortion ban and co-sponsored a 20-week abortion ban, earning him an A-plus rating from the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. After the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in June last year, he celebrated. A social conservative, Mr. Johnson played a leading role in recruiting House Republicans to sign a legal brief supporting a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results. Johnson says that he will bring to the floor “in just a little while” a resolution in support of Israel. “We’re going to show not only Israel but the entire world that the barbarism of Hamas" is "wretched and wrong,” he said.

Twenty-five Republicans voted against the fourth bill, which included measures that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States and that would redirect funds from seized Russian assets to help aid Ukraine. Democrats put up a big vote — 174 — in favor of this bill, which was intended to sweeten the overall package for conservatives. The plan, laid out in a rule that passed on Friday, was concocted to capitalize on the pools of support for each part of the $95 billion package, while preventing opposition to any one piece from taking down all of them. A crowd of students, swelling as Johnson and his colleagues began speaking, intermittently laughed and yelled that they couldn’t hear the congressman or his colleagues. The students booed the speaker, chanted in support of Palestine, including “Free Palestine,” “Stop the genocide” and “From the river to the sea,” a phrase that some say constitutes antisemitic speech.

But when he left after the 1924 session, his party was still firmly in control and had just elected President Calvin Coolidge to a full term. 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. In 1994, two years into the presidency of Democrat Bill Clinton, Gingrich organized a campaign around a 10-item agenda called the "Contract with America." It provided a unified message for the party's nominees, who flipped more than 50 seats and stormed into the majority. The 30-year saga began with Gingrich of Georgia, who was the first member of his party to gain "the big gavel" since the early 1950s and the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Last month, Greene unveiled a motion to remove Johnson as speaker, although she has not yet moved to force a vote on the matter. In the past week, two more House Republicans – Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona – have signed on as co-sponsors. Simply getting the bills to a vote on the foor required Johnson to seek help from Democrats across the aisle. A procedural vote to get it to the floor was , with 165 Democrats and 151 Republicans supporting the motion. The passed bills will be combined into a single package to simplify the voting process for the Senate, which will need to reapprove the proposal before it can go to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature. Of course, members of the latter group don’t admit to the impossibility of their goals; that would ruin the con.