House GOP agrees on new rules for ousting speaker
WASHINGTON – House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is set to start next year without the threat of being easily ousted, dodging a rule that a handful of Republican rebels used to boot his predecessor.
Two factions of the House Republican conference that have often been at odds with one another – the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and the more moderate Main Street Caucus – have agreed to a rule change that could protect Johnson from an insurgent push to topple him.
Johnson was also unanimously selected to remain House speaker next year in a House GOP meeting Wednesday.
At issue is a procedural tool known as the 'motion to vacate' that ultraconservatives used to remove former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from his leadership post. It has often been blamed as a source of the chaos in the lower chamber for the last two years.
The motion to vacate has allowed any one member to force a vote to oust the speaker, meaning each member has more leverage than is typical for less prominent lawmakers. Now, that threshold would be raised to nine members.
The agreement would be formalized at the beginning of the next Congress in January, when members rewrite their own rules.
McCarthy agreed to the incredibly narrow threshold for ousting him in January 2023 in order to secure enough votes to become speaker. But the tool became a constant threat that allowed the chamber’s most right-wing members to put pressure on the speaker to reject bipartisan compromises in pivotal negotiations, such as keeping the government funded and raising the debt ceiling.
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz – who on Wednesday became Trump’s nominee for attorney general and promptly resigned from Congress – used the tool to call a vote on McCarthy’s speakership in October 2023 because he worked with Democrats to dodge a shutdown. Enough Republicans joined him and the former California lawmaker was voted out of his job.
The House was then frozen for three weeks as House Republicans repeatedly failed to elect a new leader.
Johnson was finally chosen as speaker, vaulting to the top spot after serving as the No. 5 House Republican. However, the same infighting that plagued McCarthy has frequently derailed conservative legislation and hung over tough decisions Johnson has had to make as speaker.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tried to use a motion to vacate to remove Johnson earlier this year, but it was widely rejected in the lower chamber.
Now that Republicans will have a trifecta in the next Congress – controlling the House, Senate and White House – they are eager to clear the path to easy legislating.
In a meeting with House members Wednesday morning, President-elect Donald Trump asked for unity and 'that we deliver for the American public what they asked for last week,' Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told reporters.
