With only a little bit of drama, on January 3, House Republicans chose Rep. Michael Johnson (R-LA) to be Speaker of the House for the 119^th Congress. Virtually all Speaker votes are purely partisan, and this one was no exception. So, with a 219 to 215 GOP-to-Democrat edge, Rep. Johnson needed 218 votes to become Speaker. The final vote was 218 to 215—one Republican (Kentucky’s Rep. Thomas Massie) voted for someone else.

The vote triggered a little bit of drama, although substantially less than many Washington insiders had predicted. Initially, three Republicans voted for someone other than Johnson, leaving Johnson short of the 218 votes he needed to win the job. However, the vote was held open for an hour during which President-Elect Trump—who had endorsed Johnson for Speaker—called two of the holdouts (Reps. Ralph Norman/SC and Keith Self/TX) and persuaded them to flip their votes.

After electing the Speaker and swearing in the members of the 119^th Congress, the House turned its attention to enacting the rules that will govern the chamber for the next two years. The rules package was largely non-controversial, but contains one change that could turn out to be significant in the upcoming months: it will now take nine members of the majority party, rather than the just one member it took during the 118^th Congress, when then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was booted, to offer a motion to vacate—the procedure used to depose the Speaker.

Prospects: Republican unity, which will be required for the plans for all-GOP legislation in the early days of the 119^th Congress, is in doubt. There is considerable disagreement among Congressional Republicans on both strategy and, to a lesser extent, policy. With a zero-vote majority until spring those disagreements will make enactment of legislation a challenge.

NAIFA Staff Contacts: Diane Boyle – Senior Vice President – Government Relations, at dboyle@naifa.org; or Jayne Fitzgerald – Director – Government Relations, at jfitzgerald@naifa.org; or Mike Hedge – Senior Director – Government Relations, at mhedge@naifa.org.