WASHINGTON – Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives return Tuesday from a two-week recess with an even smaller majority and the potential chaos of a second speaker’s fight in less than a year.
Hours before recess began on March 22, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia spoke submitted an application He called for the U.S. House speaker’s office to be vacated and threatened to remove Mike Johnson of Louisiana from the post he has held for just over five months.
The potential leadership crisis looms over a stern to-do list that includes renewing the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act and pushing to finally approve a long-stalled foreign aid request for conflicts in Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific .
The risk of chaos for the GOP increases: Two Republicans in the House of Representatives abruptly announced their resignations days before lawmakers left for the Easter break, shrinking the Republican majority in the House to 217 to 213 once both Republicans are over and later in the A series of special elections are coming up later this spring.
Colorado’s Ken Buck resigned March 22, quickly followed by the sudden resignation of Wisconsin’s Mike Gallagher, whose last day is scheduled for April 19.
And as the 2024 election cycle accelerates, political observers will be watching to see whether Republican lawmakers in the House balance day-to-day operations while appeasing the political base for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump.
House Republicans struggled to unite during the 118th Congress, which began with the party going through more than a dozen ballots to put Kevin McCarthy in charge, said Matt Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University .
McCarthy of California was ousted in the fall and the former leader left Congress in December, losing his majority advantage.
“This is a continuation of the turmoil that actually began when Republicans took power,” Dallek said.
Help for Ukraine
With another two weeks of work ahead of us, Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives have another chance to prove whether they can raise billions in aid for U.S. allies. House Republicans also face huge questions about federal funding to support rebuild the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and the renewal of a surveillance law that expires April 19, a self-imposed deadline after lawmakers passed it in December had extended.
Johnson has vowed to prioritize Ukraine aid when House lawmakers return on Tuesday, despite the prospect of continued opposition from the party’s far-right faction.
The US Senate passed in February a $95.3 billion foreign aid package that would cover aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but the House has not yet advanced it.
The standalone foreign aid package received support after Senate Republicans blocked a deal to change U.S. immigration laws in exchange for Ukraine aid following months of bipartisan negotiations following Trump’s opposition.
Johnson said the House would reconsider aid to Ukraine. “We have spoken to all members, especially now during district working hours. When we return after that period, we will move a product, but I think it will have some critical innovations,” the Louisiana Republican said March 31 on Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America,” broadcast by former GOP South was moderated by Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy.
Johnson said he wanted to see that REPO law as part of the deal. The legislation introduced last year would establish a fund for Ukraine that would employ profits from the sale of seized Russian assets, which Johnson said was “pure poetry.”
Johnson also said he expects conference members to find support if the bill restructures aid to Ukraine in the form of loans and includes a measure that would “boost” American natural gas exports to “help finance Vladimir Putin’s war effort.” “.
The speaker faces an uphill battle in uniting House Republicans on the issue.
Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, a member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, wrote on April 3: “Borrowing billions of dollars to protect Ukraine’s borders while OUR southern border is being invaded is a slap in the face to the American people.”
Some of Johnson’s Conservative colleagues believe changing aid law could be a winning strategy.
Rep. French Hill of Arkansas said introducing the REPO bill “would go a long way toward closing Ukraine’s budget gap and provide a good down payment on the rebuilding effort so that Putin has to pay the ultimate cost of his illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
“In my opinion, one way to get more support for the overall package for Ukraine would be to seize these Russian assets,” Hill said told CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan on Sunday.
When Brennan pressed him about the skepticism of his far-right colleagues, including Greene, Hill responded: “I think the vast majority of Americans and Republican primary voters believe that Putin should be defeated in Ukraine.” As I’ve said before, we should draw a line when authoritarian dictators, particularly lasting members of the United Nations Security Council, invade neighboring countries.”
Work with the Democrats?
If Johnson can’t unite the House GOP conference, votes from the other side may be the only path to passing a relief package, especially if Johnson bypasses the House Rules Committee. A two-thirds majority is required to pass this quick vote, which inevitably means Democratic support will be significant.
However, a government is striking Financing agreement with President Joe Biden last year was a flashpoint that led to far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives push away by McCarthy.
Business in the House came to a standstill for weeks in October after seven House Republicans joined Matt Gaetz of Florida in accepting the gavel from McCarthy. All Democrats voted together for his removal.
Greene’s motion in slow March to fire Johnson followed an expedited bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives that resulted in the result Passage of the last round of overdue spending bills.
Greene did not force a vote to remove Johnson, but rather said it was a “warning” to him that the conference would be looking for a recent speaker who would “stand with Republicans and our Republican majority, rather than with the Republican majority.” Democrats,” she told reporters after filing the motion.
Dallek said Johnson’s passage of a Ukraine deal “could be the final straw for the Marjorie Taylor Greenes of the world, and they could take steps to get rid of him.”
“There are rumors that Democrats would bail out (Johnson) if they agreed to stop funding Ukraine. “You know, it’s not a great job to keep your speakership because you were bailed out by the opposition party, is it?” Dallek said.
Johnson said he believes his Republican colleagues view Greene’s efforts as “a distraction from our mission.”
“Again, the mission is to save the republic,” he told Fox News’ Gowdy at Easter. “And we can only achieve that if we expand the majority in the House of Representatives, win the Senate and the White House.
“So we don’t need any disagreements at the moment. Look, Marjorie Taylor Greene submitted the motion, it is not a privileged motion, so it will not be automatically implemented. It just hangs there. And she is frustrated. She and I exchanged text messages. Even today. We’ll talk early next week,” Johnson said.
Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said he was “optimistic” that the House could pass the Ukraine aid bill this term.
“But it is very likely that under this Ukraine law we will have a standoff with the speaker. I hope the speaker prevails. He’s doing the right thing. “It is in our national security interest that Ukraine remain independent,” Bacon said told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on March 31.
On Monday, Greene wrote down
“Our Republican Speaker of the House is alienating many of our members by relying on Democrats to pass important bills and colluding with Democrats by giving them everything they want,” Greene wrote.
“That makes him the Democratic Speaker of the House, not our Republican Speaker of the House.”
