Speaker Johnson struggles to keep control of the House floor
WASHINGTON — Less than a year before the crucial 2026 midterm elections, President Mike Johnson is losing control of the House.
The Louisiana Republican suffered a crushing defeat before Thanksgiving when Donald Trump’s foe, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and a trio of Republican women defied Johnson and his top lieutenants and teamed up with Democrats to force a near-unanimous vote to make Jeffrey Epstein’s files public.
Seeing Massie’s enormous success in signing the Epstein bill into law, other Republicans are now turning to that same playbook to go over the speaker’s head.
This week, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., filed a discharge petition in an effort to circumvent Johnson and force a vote on a bipartisan bill that would prohibit members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks. Nine other Republicans joined Luna and signed the petition, alongside six Democrats.
That’s a far cry from the 218 signatures needed to bypass the speaker and force a floor vote. But the signatures are remarkable; it was once rare for members of the majority to resort to impeachment petitions against their own leaders.
Moderate Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., leader of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, is threatening to file his own discharge petition to impose “crushing” U.S. sanctions on Russia as Trump’s proposed peace deal to end the war in Ukraine appears to be faltering. And he’s considering another to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies unless leaders act before the Dec. 31 deadline.
“We’re not afraid to use that option,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s not a tool of the minority, it’s a tool of the grassroots.”
On Wednesday, Johnson’s team abruptly pulled the SCORE Act — which would create federal standards for compensating student-athletes — from the House amid opposition from a bloc of conservative Republicans led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. It was their most important bill of the week.
On top of that, Johnson has grappled with rank-and-file members who have forced votes to censure other colleagues, with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., even targeting a fellow Republican, Rep. Cory Mills of Florida.
Mace is among a group of high-profile female lawmakers who have hurled arrows at Johnson, lambasting his leadership and making life miserable for the speaker, who rose from obscurity to the top job two years ago after Kevin McCarthy was toppled by his own internal revolt.
Much of Johnson’s headaches come from presiding over one of the smallest majorities in history. Since he was sworn in by Tennessee Republican Matt Van Epps on Thursday morning, Republicans have a 220-213 advantage over Democrats, meaning Johnson can only afford three GOP defections on any bill he introduces.
“A lot of anxiety and stress”
Privately, senior Republican officials point to a “confluence” of circumstances and events that has given rise to a wave of dismissal petitions and other rogue antics on the ground. Trump’s approval rating continues to decline. Democratic candidates outperformed in recent elections in New Jersey, Virginia and Tennessee, a bad sign for House Republicans in next year’s midterm elections. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” did not bring down costs or curb inflation. And Johnson’s decision to keep the House in recess for 54 days due to the shutdown resulted in less committee work and fewer bills passed.
“The confluence is Trump’s weakening political power, the outcome of the elections in New Jersey, New York and Virginia, and people worrying about the election. There’s a lot of anxiety and stress about the election, and people are looking at their own districts and saying, ‘I thought things were going to be different,'” a senior House Republican lawmaker said.
“And I just think after 50 days of being gone, there was no continuity. Nobody was there. Nobody was saying, ‘Hey, you’re doing great. Keep it up,'” the lawmaker continued. “With everyone back in their district, there was a loneliness. Many members perhaps felt like we were alone.”
Johnson, a bespectacled, buttoned-up constitutional lawyer, rarely seems troubled or angry. While other candidates for president in 2023 faced stiff opposition, Johnson was catapulted to the seventh-place presidential position, in part because he had no enemies.
Over the last two years in this role, that has certainly changed. But Johnson played down the drama on the ground and at his 220-member conference, saying that despite diversity of opinion and narrow margins, his party was able to advance “a very aggressive agenda in a very short space of time.”
“Sometimes there’s friction, sometimes there’s vigorous debate. It’s all part of the process. People are going to have emotions. They’re going to be upset about certain things. It’s part of the process. That doesn’t deter me in any way. It doesn’t bother me,” Johnson told reporters Thursday. “But when there is a conflict or concern, I always ask all members to come to me. Don’t go to social media, call me. Come to the office.”
While he has his share of detractors, Johnson, a Trump loyalist accused by Democrats of handing too much congressional authority to the president, has an equal number of defenders.
“I support Mike Johnson and what he’s doing. I think he’s in line with the president. I think he has the president’s ear,” said Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas. “If it’s not Mike Johnson, then who? … Who could get enough votes to replace him? And honestly, it’s probably no one.”
A wave of dismissal requests
Discharge requests are rarely successful. According to a study by the Brookings Institution, only 4% of release requests submitted between 1935 and 2022 resulted in the adoption of a bill. Johnson has repeatedly denounced the practice, saying it cedes power – and control of speech – to the opposition party.
“We continue to see the standards of the House decline over time. I think it’s unfortunate,” said Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson, who is running for governor of South Dakota and is not related to the president. “I don’t think a discharge request helps the institution. … It clearly empowers the minority in what is otherwise a majority institution.”
But faced with fewer opportunities to achieve bipartisan outcomes, vulnerable Republicans are turning to the legislative tool to advance policy priorities they can tout at home.
On Tuesday, Luna, a Democratic target whose private investments have come under intense scrutiny, filed his petition seeking a bipartisan ban on stock trading for members of Congress and their immediate family members. Reps. Fitzpatrick, Mace, Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Eli Crane, R-Ariz., Greg Steube, R-Fla., Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, have all signed on.
It is unclear, however, whether the bill’s supporters will be able to obtain the required 218 signatures, given that a large number of lawmakers own and trade individual stocks, some in industries related to the committees on which they serve.
“Congress is infinitely broken under either party, and the committee system is bogging things down,” said Burchett, the author of the legislation behind the stock ban. “This is the only way to get the bill passed.”
Johnson and his team also faced other setbacks this week. Leaders had to withdraw the SCORE Act shortly before Wednesday’s vote after Roy, a candidate for Texas attorney general, and a handful of other Republicans remained opposed to the bill.
Earlier in the week, Roy and a group of conservative allies nearly blocked a vote on a procedural rule that would have immediately killed the sports bill. Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., were needed to twist arms and overturn votes on the floor; the rule was adopted 210-209. Roy and Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Scott Perry, R-Pa., all voted no.
Roy said Wednesday on X that the bill was “not ready for prime time” and questioned why Congress was even getting involved in trying to regulate college sports.
“There were a lot of down votes. It wasn’t just me,” Roy told NBC News after the bill was withdrawn. “Obviously there were three of us on the rule, but there were, like, I’m not going to give the number…There were a lot of people who weren’t ready to be on this bill today.”
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., who served as chairman of the Rules Committee and is now the panel’s top Democrat, said he understands Republicans who are turning to rejecting petitions amid gridlock.
“They’re not getting any help from their own leadership. This place doesn’t work anymore. I mean, we put out a rule for all six bills this week: They’re all closed, no amendments have been made in the order. Even the Republican amendments have been rejected,” McGovern said in an interview outside the Capitol.
“For some Republicans, their priorities are not taken into account by their leaders, and so they sort of bypass their leaders,” he added. “I don’t always agree with everything they do, but I certainly share their frustration.”
