On October 25, 2023, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was elected as the 56th speaker of the House with 220 Republicans supporting his bid for the speakership.
Elected in 2016, Johnson has had a relatively low-profile career during his tenure as a rank-and-file member. He previously served on the House Armed Services Committee and the Judiciary Committee as chairman of the Constitution & Limited Government Chairman. During the 116th Congress he served as the chair of the Republican Study Committee, immersing himself in conservative policy circles. In 2020 he was elected vice chair of the House Republican Conference. During his last 6 years in Congress, he has positioned himself to advance conservative policies, aligning more often with the far-right factions of the Republican Party.
Read more about the new Speaker and his background here.
Prior to being elected Speaker, Johnson released his key priorities and his legislative plan for the remainder of the year to tackle government funding, NDAA, FAA, Farm Bill, and new legislative priorities. First and foremost, will be funding and likely some sort of Ukraine/Israel funding package. In his released plan, he proposed an extended CR, temporarily funding the government until the first quarter of 2024. His goal is to pass all 12 funding bills without having to do an Omnibus. It is interesting to note that the current CR was McCarthy’s downfall whereas members are already discussing support for Johnson’s CR, claiming he is more “trustworthy”.
Johnson is an unknown quantity among Senate Leadership and with the White House, lacking the relationships that McCarthy and even the other nominees for speaker had with these other leaders. In addition to needing to build these new relationships quickly, Johnson needs to build an entire fundraising and legislative branch mostly from scratch. Though he needs to hit the ground running, there is substantially more he will have to tackle in his new position. McCarthy’s fundraising outfit has already decided to back Johnson, hopefully alleviating some stress from this portion of his new job.
Being a more conservative Speaker than we have seen in recent history, Johnson has shifted the dynamic of power in the House. Under McCarthy’s more moderate leadership, the freedom caucus and conservative members pushed back on him. To an extent, the balance within the House Republican Conference has now shifted in favor of the more moderate members. If they play this right, they could guide what would be presumably hyper-conservative policy back to the middle. On the other hand, these moderate members are often the most ‘at risk’ for being primaried and losing in the next election. Generally, the Speaker’s fundraising arm protects these members in attempts to maintain the majority. Johnson’s fundraising and campaign priorities will be something to watch as his Speaker operation takes shape.
Right after being elected, Speaker Johnson reopened the floor where the House left off three weeks ago, debating amendments to H.R. 4394, the Energy-Water appropriations measure. His first legislative action was a floor vote on the passage of H.R. 4394 on October 26th. The bill passed the House with a 210-199 vote. This floor consideration and vote are right on schedule with the plan he released earlier this week.
NECA will be working diligently to build a relationship with the new Speaker of the House and his staff. Next month, Speaker Johnson plans to release his legislative priorities for the remainder of the 118th Congress. NECA will be working to ensure our top priorities are included in that plan.
