{"id":285899,"date":"2025-11-11T19:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/285899\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T19:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:51:09","slug":"speaker-johnson-faces-an-unruly-house-as-lawmakers-return-for-shutdown-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/285899\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker Johnson faces an unruly House as lawmakers return for shutdown vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 After refusing to convene the U.S. House during the government shutdown<\/a>, Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> is recalling lawmakers back into session \u2014 and facing an avalanche of pent-up legislative demands from those who have largely been sidelined from governing.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of representatives are preparing to return Wednesday to Washington after a nearly eight-week absence<\/a>, carrying a torrent of ideas, proposals and frustrations over work that has stalled when the Republican speaker shuttered the House doors nearly two months ago.<\/p>\n

First will be a vote to reopen the government<\/a>. But that\u2019s just the start. With efforts to release the Jeffrey Epstein files<\/a> and the swearing in of Arizona\u2019s Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva,<\/a> the unfinished business will pose a fresh test to Johnson\u2019s grip on power and put a renewed focus on his leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extraordinary,\u201d said Matthew Green, a professor at the politics department at The Catholic University of America. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Speaker Johnson and Republicans are doing, you have to go back decades to find an example where the House \u2014 either chamber \u2014 decided not to meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaveling in after two months gone <\/p>\n

When the House gavels back into session, it will close this remarkable chapter of Johnson\u2019s tenure when he showed himself to be a leader who is quietly, but brazenly, willing to upend institutional norms in pursuit of his broader strategy, even at the risk of diminishing the House itself.<\/p>\n

Rather than use the immense powers of the speaker\u2019s office to forcefully steer the debate in Congress, as a coequal branch of the government on par with the executive and the courts, Johnson simply closed up shop \u2014 allowing the House to become unusually deferential, particularly to President Donald Trump<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Over these past weeks, the chamber has sidestepped its basic responsibilities, from passing routine legislation to conducting oversight. The silencing of the speaker\u2019s gavel has been both unusual and surprising in a system of government where the founders envisioned the branches would vigorously protect their institutional prerogatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see it is pretty empty around here,\u201d Johnson, R-La., said on day three of the shutdown<\/a>, tour groups no longer crowding the halls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Congress decides to turn off the lights, it shifts the authority to the executive branch. That is how it works,\u201d he said, blaming Democrats, with their fight over health care funds<\/a>, for the closures.<\/p>\n

An empty House as a political strategy<\/p>\n

The speaker has defended his decision to shutter the House during what\u2019s now the longest government shutdown<\/a> in U.S. history. He argued that the chamber, under the GOP majority, had already done its job passing a stopgap funding bill in September. It would be up to the Senate to act, he said.<\/p>\n

When the Senate failed over and over to advance the House bill, more than a dozen times, he refused to enter talks with the other leaders on a compromise. Johnson also encouraged Trump to cancel an initial sit-down with the Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer<\/a> and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries<\/a> to avoid a broader negotiation while the government was still closed.<\/p>\n

Instead, the speaker, whose job is outlined in the Constitution, second in line of succession to the presidency, held held almost daily press conferences on his side of the Capitol, a weekly conference call with GOP lawmakers, and private talks with Trump. He joined the president for Sunday\u2019s NFL Washington Commanders<\/a> game as the Senate was slogging through a weekend session.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say, why aren\u2019t you negotiating with Schumer and Jeffries? I quite literally have nothing to negotiate,\u201d Johnson said at one point.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019ve said time and time again, I don\u2019t have anything to negotiate with,\u201d he said on day 13 of the shutdown. \u201cWe did our job. We had that vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

And besides he said of the GOP lawmakers, \u201cThey are doing some of their best work in the district, helping their constituents navigate this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accidental speaker delivers for Trump<\/p>\n

In many ways, Johnson has become a surprisingly effective leader, an accidental speaker who was elected to the job<\/a> by his colleagues after all others failed to win it. He has now lasted more than two years, longer than many once envisioned.<\/p>\n

This year, with Trump\u2019s return to the White House, the speaker has commandeered his slim GOP majority and passed legislation including the president\u2019s so-called \u201cone big beautiful bill\u201d<\/a> of tax breaks and spending reductions that became law this summer.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s shutdown strategy also largely achieved his goal, forcing Senate Democrats to break ranks<\/a> and approve the funds to reopen government without the extension of health care subsidies they were demanding to help ease the sticker shock of rising insurance premium costs<\/a> with the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s approach is seen as one that manages up \u2014 he stays close to Trump and says they speak often \u2014 and also hammers down, imposing a rigid control over the day-to-day schedule of the House, and its lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Amassing quiet power<\/p>\n

Under a House rules change this year, Johnson was able to keep the chamber shuttered indefinitely on his own, without the usual required vote. This year his leadership team has allowed fewer opportunities for amendments on legislation, according to a recent tally. Other changes have curtailed the House\u2019s ability to provide a robust check on the executive branch over Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a> and use of war powers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s refusal to swear-in Grijalva is a remarkable flex of the speaker\u2019s power, leading to comparisons with Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell\u2019s decision not to consider President Barack Obama\u2019s Supreme Court nominee, said David Rapallo, an associate professor and director of the Federal Legislation Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. Arizona has sued<\/a> to seat her. <\/p>\n

Marc Short, who headed up the White House\u2019s legislative affairs office during the first Trump administration, said of Johnson, \u201cIt\u2019s impressive how he\u2019s held the conference together.\u201d<\/p>\n

But said Short, \u201cThe legislative branch has abdicated a lot of responsibility to the executive under his watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tough decisions ahead for the Speaker<\/p>\n

As lawmakers make their way back to Washington, the speaker\u2019s power will be tested again as they consider the package to reopen government.<\/p>\n

Republicans are certain to have complaints about the bill, which funds much of the federal government through Jan. 30 and keeps certain programs including agriculture, military construction and veterans affairs running through September.<\/p>\n

But with House Democratic leaders rejecting the package for having failed to address the health care subsidies, it will be up to Johnson to muscle it through with mostly GOP lawmakers \u2014 with hardly any room for defections in the chamber that\u2019s narrowly split.<\/p>\n

Jeffries, who has criticized House Republicans for what he called an extended vacation, said, \u201cThey\u2019re not going to be able to hide this week when they return.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 After refusing to convene the U.S. House during the government shutdown, Speaker Mike Johnson is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[13123,23,1017,8833,9286,3505,12,1070,793,3138,9292,12481,2601,14825,9597,2077,6098,140145,13410,9284,3,111,8638,9293,795,3438,21,9291,19,22,20,25,24,8647,800],"class_list":["post-285899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-adelita-grijalva","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-barack-obama","tag-charles-schumer","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-government-shutdown","tag-hakeem-jeffries","tag-health-care-industry","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-la-state-wire","tag-legislation","tag-louisiana","tag-marc-short","tag-mike-johnson","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-government-shutdown","tag-u-s-news","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-house-of-representatives","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-voting","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}