WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� has lamented he would like to preside over but the chamber the Republican is leading is anything but.
. Hours of dead zones with . Legislation being , behind closed doors. Sudden votes scheduled. Spectacular failures. And, as happened this week, in which the House actually passes bills.
“Sometimes it鈥檚 an ugly process, sometimes it鈥檚 a long process,” Johnson said after House passage of a bipartisan bill to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, . “But we got it done.”
Republicans, who face an uphill climb this to keep hold of their paper-thin House majority, appear at times as if they are still learning on the job, years after having returned to power in 2022, while they are also about to ask voters in November to rehire them for another term.
This week’s starts and stops 鈥� for example, five hours of delay as Johnson huddled behind closed doors to salvage his agenda, then a sudden near 11 p.m. 鈥� would typically have been the kind of situation that shocked the political and procedural senses. Now, it’s just another Wednesday.
Or two weeks ago, when a routine House Rules Committee hearing ended up becoming a midnight forum to debut a just-produced 14-page bill to , known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, before it was rushed to the floor for a 2 a.m. vote. It failed.
鈥淗ouse Republicans have shown again that they can鈥檛 govern,鈥� said Rep. Ted Lieu of California, part of Democratic leadership.
鈥淭hey routinely pass bills to the Senate that are way too extreme, then it ends up that we have all these floor session days where we鈥檙e just doing nothing,鈥� he said.
House GOP’s slim majority makes leader’s job challenging
Johnson, who took over for the ousted more than two years ago, is presiding over one of the slimmest House majorities in modern times, leaving him no room to spare if he’s trying to pass legislation on party line votes, without Democrats.
The speaker is juggling not only priorities but also those of the various factions that make up his majority, from the conservative House Freedom Caucus to what remains of the GOP’s more pragmatic conservatives.
And Johnson鈥檚 own future is always in question, after Republicans chased other speakers, including McCarthy, John Boehner and Newt Gingrich, to early exits.
Last year Johnson, of Louisiana, of the party’s signature achievement, , which Trump signed into law. At the time, he quipped about the difficulty of getting it over the finish line.
鈥淚 do so deeply desire to have just a normal Congress,鈥� the speaker said in July.
鈥淏ut it doesn鈥檛 happen anymore,” he said. 鈥淥ur way is to plow through and get it done.”
What’s ahead as House GOP tries to stay in power
Ahead of the fall elections, Johnson and other Republican lawmakers have discussed an agenda that includes the promise of another GOP-only budget package like the tax cuts bill that they could push through the House and the Senate, without Democratic votes.
Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said Thursday that he expects 鈥渢he centerpiece鈥� of that package “will be supporting our troops” with more than $100 billion in funding for as well as money to replenish defense munitions and other Pentagon-related needs.
Despite the turbulent week in the House, Arrington said what they’re calling budget reconciliation 3.0 should be the 鈥渘ext order of business.鈥�
Yet GOP lawmakers may decide it’s better to skip the hard work of legislating, and the dramatic upheavals that tend to come with it, and hit the campaign trail to win over voters instead.
Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., the chairman of the House GOP’s campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, acknowledged that trying to pass legislation with such a tight majority “can be rough. It’s ugly.”
鈥淚’d be fine with letting us go home and campaign,鈥� Hudson said. 鈥淏ut we’ve got a lot of important work still to do.鈥�
Some of Johnson’s most ardent sparring partners, those most conservative Republican lawmakers, turned their blame for the messy process not on Johnson’s leadership but on their own GOP allies across the Capitol in the Senate, who often dismiss the House’s work.
鈥淵eah, sometimes, it gets a little tense,鈥� said Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e still getting stuff done. We鈥檙e sending it over to the Senate. So we look forward to them doing their job.鈥�
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