WASHINGTON (AP) — After refusing to convene the U.S. House of Representatives during the presidential campaign; government shutdown, speaker mike johnson The government has recalled MPs to session and faces an avalanche of pent-up legislative demands, mainly from people who have been kept out of governance.
Hundreds of delegates are preparing to return to Washington on Wednesday. Almost 8 weeks absentwith a torrent of ideas, suggestions and complaints about work that stalled when the Republican speaker closed the House’s doors nearly two months ago.
First, let’s vote restart the government. But that’s just the beginning. Through efforts to liberate Jeffrey Epstein files and oath of arizona Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva; The unfinished business will pose a new challenge to Mr Johnson’s grip on power and put a new focus on his leadership.
“This is unusual,” said Matthew Green, a political science professor at the Catholic University of America.
“What Speaker Johnson and the Republicans are doing, you have to go back decades to find an instance where the House of Representatives, in either chamber, decided not to meet.”
Gabbling for the first time in 2 months
When the House of Commons puts the gavel back into session, it will close this remarkable chapter in Mr. Johnson’s tenure, when Mr. Johnson has shown himself to be a leader willing to quietly but brazenly overturn institutional norms in pursuit of a broader strategy, even at the risk of shrinking the House itself.
Rather than use the great powers of the Speaker to coerce parliamentary debate as a branch of government on a par with the executive branch or the courts, Johnson simply closed the door and allowed the House of Commons to become unusually deferential to Parliament in particular. President Donald Trump.
In recent weeks, Congress has shied away from its basic responsibilities, from passing routine legislation to conducting oversight. In a system of government in which the Founders envisioned branches vigorously protecting their institutional prerogatives, the silence of the Speaker’s gavel was unusual and surprising.
“You can see it’s pretty empty around here,” Johnson, R-Louisiana, said on his third day. shutdowntour groups no longer crowd the halls.
“When Congress decides to turn off the lights, it transfers power to the executive branch. That’s how it works,” he said, criticizing Democrats. The fight over medical fundsfor closures.
Vacant houses as a political strategy
The Speaker defended his decision to close the House of Commons during the ongoing period. longest government shutdown in the history of the United States. He argued that Congress, under a Republican majority, had already done its job by passing a stopgap funding bill in September. It’s up to the Senate to take action, he said.
When the Senate failed more than a dozen times to pass the House bill, he refused to engage in compromise negotiations with other leaders. Johnson also encouraged President Trump to cancel his first roundtable with Democratic leaders. senator chuck chumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries This is to avoid extensive negotiations while the government is still closed.
Instead, the speaker, who is second in line to the president as mandated by the Constitution, held near-daily press conferences on the side of the Capitol, held weekly conference calls with Republican lawmakers and met privately with President Trump. he joined the president on sunday NFL Washington Commanders The game came as the Senate was rushing through its weekend session.
“People say, why don’t you negotiate with Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries? There’s literally nothing to negotiate,” Mr. Johnson said at one point.
“As I have said many times, there is nothing to negotiate,” he said on the 13th day of the shutdown. “We did our job. We had that vote.”
He also said of Republicans, “They’re doing the best job they can in their districts, helping their constituents get through this crisis.”
Spoke for Trump in a chance speech
In many ways, Johnson became a surprisingly effective leader. selected for the job It was won by his colleague after everyone else failed. His term is now more than two years long, longer than many once imagined.
This year, with Trump’s return to the White House, he usurped a narrow Republican majority to pass legislation, including the president’s so-called legislation. “One big, beautiful bill.” Tax cuts and spending cuts became law this summer.
Mr. Johnson’s closure strategy almost achieved its goals; Senate Democrats lose ground And it would authorize a fund to restart the government without the extension of health subsidies it had requested to cushion the shock. Rising insurance premiums Based on the Affordable Care Act.
Johnson’s approach, which he says is close to Trump and speaks to him frequently, is seen as both successful and demanding, with tight controls on the House and its members’ daily schedules.
accumulate quiet power
Changes to House rules this year allowed Mr. Johnson to single-handedly keep the chamber closed indefinitely without the normally required vote. Recent counts show that his leadership team has reduced the chances of amending legislation this year. Other changes reduced the House’s ability to provide a strong check on the executive branch. President Trump’s tariffs and use of force.
Johnson’s refusal to take Grijalva’s oath is a stunning flexing of the speaker’s power and draws comparisons to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision not to consider President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, said David Rapallo, an associate professor at Georgetown University Law Center and director of the Federal Legislative Clinic. in arizona sued To get her to sit down.
Marc Short, who served as White House legislative affairs director during the first Trump administration, said of Johnson: “It’s impressive how he organized the meeting.”
But Short said, “The Legislature has abdicated a lot of its responsibility to the executive branch it oversees.”
A tough decision awaits the chairman.
As lawmakers return to Washington, the speaker’s power will be tested again as they consider a package to reopen the government.
Republicans are sure to be unhappy with the bill, which would fund much of the federal government through Jan. 30 and continue certain programs, including agriculture, military construction and veterans affairs, through September.
But with House Democratic leaders rejecting the bill for failing to address health care subsidies, there is little room for defection in the narrowly divided chamber, and it will be up to Mr. Johnson to persuade most Republicans to push the bill through.
Jeffries criticized what House Republicans called an extended vacation, saying, “They won’t be able to hide when they come back this week.”
