Following the removal of Kevin McCarthy and election of Mike Johnson as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, several members attempted to remove him from his position.

Background

Following the 2022 midterm elections, the Republican Party won 222 seats in the House of Representatives, while the Democratic Party won 213 seats. The Democratic Party won a narrow, 2-seat majority in the Senate. The Freedom Caucus, a far-right ^[1] caucus of Republicans, secured roughly 45 seats. ^[a] Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader during the previous 117th Congress, was elected speaker of the House after 15 rounds of voting, but only after giving concessions to his opponents, who were mostly Freedom Caucus members. These concessions included lowering the threshold to file a privileged motion to vacate the chair to one member. ^[3] The Freedom Caucus persuaded McCarthy to refuse to raise the debt ceiling and threaten a default, leading to the 2023 United States debt ceiling crisis. McCarthy agreed to a deal to end the crisis, which set funding levels for the next two fiscal years, but after conservative opposition, McCarthy announced he would put appropriations legislation on the floor with much lower spending levels, as well as many riders containing conservative priorities. These bills were quickly rejected by the Democratic-led Senate, ^[4] and Republican disagreements prevented some of them from passing. ^{[5] [6]} By September, the federal government appeared poised to shut down, ^[7] but at the last minute, McCarthy announced he would put a continuing resolution on the floor without any spending cuts or riders, as long as it did not include aid to Ukraine. ^[8] The CR passed easily despite strong conservative opposition, but Representative Matt Gaetz filed a motion to vacate, citing McCarthy working with Democrats and breaking the agreement reached in the January speaker vote. ^[9] McCarthy was then removed by a 216-210 vote, with 8 Republicans and all voting Democrats voting to remove. ^[10]

Johnson's speakership

Following McCarthy's removal, the Republican conference voted to nominate Majority Leader Steve Scalise for speaker, but after facing opposition from both moderates and hardliners, he dropped out. ^[11] Following Scalise's dropout, Johnson considered running for speaker, but declined, endorsing Jim Jordan, a co-founder of the Freedom Caucus in 2015. ^{[12] [13]} Jordan won the conference's nomination, but after losing three straight floor votes, the conference voted to remove him as the nominee. ^[14] Nine candidates, including Johnson, announced a run for speaker, with Majority Whip Tom Emmer beating Johnson in the final round to become the conference's nominee, before dropping out four hours later after it was clear he could not get a majority of the whole house on the floor. ^[15] Johnson was then chosen as the fourth nominee. On October 20, he was elected speaker, with all Republicans voting for him. ^[16]

Early discussion

During the more than three weeks it took for House Republicans to elect a speaker, they were unable to pass any appropriations legislation. Johnson announced he would support another continuing resolution to extend funding for some departments until January 19 and others until February 2. ^[17] Conservatives opposed the measures, but were not ready to offer a motion to vacate. ^[18] After Johnson endorsed a bipartisan defense policy bill instead of the House Republican's initial offer, which included language cracking down on abortion funding and other riders, Representative Chip Roy described it as "a strike and a half" against Johnson and left the door open for a future motion to vacate, but as Congress had already adjourned for the holidays, a motion was not filed. ^[19]

On January 7, 2024, congressional appropriators reached an agreement on the topline spending levels for 2024 which was not substantially different from the deal negotiated by McCarthy. ^{[20] [21]} Hardliners attempted to push Johnson to abandon the deal, initially claiming that he had done so before Johnson clarified that he hadn't. ^[22] As negotiations continued over the full-year funding bills, conservatives pushed Johnson to instead endorse a full-year continuing resolution, which under McCarthy's deal would result in automatic spending cuts. ^[23]

Proposals to increase the threshold

When announcing he would not run again for speaker, McCarthy advised the next speaker to change the motion to vacate threshold. This would require a majority vote of the full House. ^[24] A few of the hardline Republicans indicated an openness to the idea. ^[25] Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said that Republicans should get rid of the motion to vacate as it makes the speaker's job "impossible." ^[26] On October 30, Representative Max Miller introduced a resolution to increase the threshold to 112 members, ^[27] but as of March 2024, it has not received any cosponsors, and is awaiting a vote in committee. ^[28] Johnson has not endorsed any effort to increase the threshold, but stated in March 2024 that "there will probably be a change" to the motion to vacate during the next congress. ^[29]

Ukraine funding

Motion to vacate

On January 18, the House passed another CR, creating new funding deadlines on March 1 and March 8. ^[30] On February 29, another CR extended these deadlines to March 8 and March 22. ^[31]

Notes

References