About the Speaker of the House of Representatives
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"We continue to look forward to finding bipartisan common ground whenever and wherever possible." The first order of business for the House under the new speaker is to consider a resolution from Texas Rep. Mike McCaul "standing with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists." Jeffries, the Democratic leader, presented him with the gavel, calling him a "family man, a hardworking man, a Baptist man, a Southern man, a son of a firefighter's household." Johnson listed a number of his priorities, including border security, cutting federal spending and establishing a bipartisan debt commission "immediately."
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
One of the most influential speakers in history was Democrat Sam Rayburn.[48] Rayburn had the most cumulative time as speaker in history, holding office from 1940 to 1947, 1949 to 1953, and 1955 to 1961. He helped shape many bills, working quietly in the background with House committees. He also helped ensure the passage of several domestic measures and foreign assistance programs advocated by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman. 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. If elected in November, the constitution only allows him to serve one term, and he told the magazine that he has no plans “to overturn or ignore the constitution’s prohibition on a third term”.
December 1905
Mike Johnson of Louisiana elected speaker of the U.S. House after three weeks of stalemate • Missouri Independent - Missouri Independent
Mike Johnson of Louisiana elected speaker of the U.S. House after three weeks of stalemate • Missouri Independent.
Posted: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
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. Historically, this expectation has been so strong that a person will vote for their party leader even if they opposed the nominee during their party’s organizing meetings held in the previous fall after the election. For instance, in the lead up to the 1971 Speakership contest, Representative John Conyers challenged Majority Leader Carl Albert, the presumptive Democratic nominee, during the party meeting.
Rep. Mike Johnson has been elected speaker. Here's what to know
Mainstream conservatives who backed Mr. Johnson said they hoped to quickly move to pull the House out of its funk. Almost immediately after Mr. Johnson was elected, lawmakers began debating a resolution expressing solidarity with Israel and condemning Hamas, which passed overwhelmingly. The vote put him second in line to the presidency, capping an extraordinary period of twists and turns on Capitol Hill. It marked a victory for the far right that has become a dominant force in the Republican Party, which rose up this month to effectively dictate the removal of an establishment speaker and the installation of an arch-conservative replacement. Exhausted from the feuding, which unleashed a barrage of recriminations and violent threats against lawmakers, both the right wing and mainstream Republicans finally united to elect Mr. Johnson, 51, in a 220-to-209 vote. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond.
Speaker pro tempore
Johnson had been elected by Republicans as a last-ditch consensus candidate after McCarthy’s ouster, but he courted the far-right’s ire when he led passage of the $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine and U.S. allies that they oppose. AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports on a Republican congresswoman moving forward with a bid to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson. Even a glance at the history of Republican speakers since World War II would tell him that. Johnson has a spotless history of voting against legal abortion, earning an "A+" rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. Abortion rights proponents have noted his work from 2010 as a senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, citing a letter in which he fought to shut down an abortion clinic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
December 1801
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.
The little-known congressman was first elected in 2016, representing a solidly Republican part of north and western Louisiana. He has ascended through the ranks, chairing the conservative Republican Study Committee and holding the position of House Republican Conference vice chair. He sits on the Judiciary Committee (and chairs a subcommittee on the Constitution), the Armed Services Committee and the newly created select committee on "Weaponization of the Federal Government." In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with CNN ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy outlined his plans for power.

The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Bob Livingston, declared his bid for the speakership, which was unopposed, making him speaker-designate. It was then revealed, by Livingston himself, who had been publicly critical of President Bill Clinton's alleged perjury during his sexual harassment trial, that he had engaged in an extramarital affair. He opted to resign from the House, despite being urged to stay on by House Democratic leader Gephardt. The Republicans retained their majorities in the 2000, 2002, and 2004 elections. From early in its existence, the speaker's primary function had been to keep order and enforce rules.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy won the majority of the Republican vote in a closed-door November meeting. Weeks later, Democrats unanimously chose Rep. Hakeem Jeffries to become their leader as the party transitions into the minority. Northern Los Angeles County, which includes the cities of Santa Clarita, Lancaster, and Palmdale, has historically been a Republican stronghold, but has been shifting Democratic in recent elections.
Increasingly exasperated with his untenable predicament, Boehner simply resigned in October of that year. Johnson has gained stature and won bipartisan praise for letting the whole House vote on the aid package. He also got strong support in the Senate, where even an outright majority of Republicans voted for the aid on Tuesday. Just such a "motion to vacate the chair" was filed against Johnson in March by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. But Greene has yet to make the motion "privileged," which under the rules would necessitate a vote within two days.
Courthouse security is still provided by the county government under a contract with the state. 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.
In December 2020, Mr. Johnson collected signatures for a legal brief in support of a Texas lawsuit, rooted in baseless claims of widespread election irregularities, that tried to throw out the results in four battleground states won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. “This affirms the path that we took,” Representative Bob Good of Virginia, one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, tells reporters. “We went through a lot to get here, but we are ready to govern and that will begin right away,” Johnson says in his first news conference as speaker. Johnson said Republicans would "dispense with all of the usual ceremonies and celebrations” and get to work. “You’re going to see an aggressive schedule in the days and weeks ahead,” he said.
As campus protests against Israel’s invasion of Gaza escalate nationwide – including at Columbia University, where demonstrators took over a building overnight – the GOP is pressing forward with allegations that the rallies are motivated by anti-Jewish bias. While the evidence for that is disputed, the Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson today plans to announce “a House-wide crackdown on the virus of antisemitism spreading throughout college campuses”. Johnson paid a visit to Columbia last week, where he alleged Hamas “backed” the student protests, a remark that was criticized as baseless.
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