House of Representatives: Definition, Facts, History
Table Of Content
Democrats were scathing in their assessment of Mr. Johnson’s ascent to the speakership. Representative Pete Aguilar of California, the Democratic conference chairman, said that the speaker fight had devolved into a contest over “who can appease Donald Trump.” At that line, a handful of hard-right Republicans stood and applauded. The elevation of Mr. Johnson, 51, an architect of the effort to overturn the 2020 election and a religious conservative opposed to abortion rights, homosexuality and gay marriage, further cemented the Republican Party’s lurch to the right. It came after a historic fight that began when the hard right ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Oct. 3, and raged on as the divided House G.O.P. nominated and then quickly discarded three other candidates to succeed him. All representatives serve until the end of the current Congress on Jan 3, 2025. Each state in the United States elects two senators, regardless of the state’s population.
December 1805
Mr. Emmer’s demise was the latest evidence of the seemingly unending Republican dysfunction. He began the day with a scant victory, winning an internal party nominating contest by a vote of 117 to 97 over Mr. Johnson. Representative Mike Johnson, a little-known social conservative from Louisiana, emerged on Tuesday night as the latest contender for the post after Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the No. 3 House Republican, dropped his bid only hours after securing the nomination. Mr. Emmer’s downfall followed a swift backlash from the right, including former President Donald J. Trump, that left his candidacy in shambles and the G.O.P. as divided as ever.
January 1999
What's next now that Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a motion to vacate from Marjorie Taylor Greene - The Associated Press
What's next now that Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a motion to vacate from Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Posted: Fri, 22 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Committees in both houses review bills that have been introduced by their colleagues, holding hearings in which their merits are debated. Members of Congress in both houses are assigned to committees with specific areas of interest (e.g., the Intelligence Committee, the Agriculture Committee). Often, their committee assignments reflect their interests or the interests of their district. The Senate includes 100 members, with each of the 50 states electing two senators to this body of Congress to six-year terms. The House of Representatives has 435 members, with each of the 50 states electing varying numbers of legislators according to the size of their population.
How the House Voted on Foreign Aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan
Johnson is the sixth Republican elevated to the speakership since 1994, the year the party won its first House majority and elected a speaker of its own for the first time in 40 years. The hard truth is that the five who preceded Johnson (McCarthy, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich) all saw their time in the office end in relative degrees of defeat or frustration. And to find a Republican speaker who left voluntarily in a moment of victory, moving on to another office, you have to go back to the mid-1920s. Johnson has gained stature and won bipartisan praise for letting the whole House vote on the aid package. He also got strong support in the Senate, where even an outright majority of Republicans voted for the aid on Tuesday. The House is now voting to pass a resolution in support of Israel in the war against Hamas – the first measure to come to the floor to be passed after Speaker Mike Johnson was elected this morning following three weeks of a speakerless-House.
An election for speaker took place on March 4, 1869, at the start of the 41st Congress, following the 1868–69 elections in which Republicans won a majority of the seats. James G. Blaine received a majority of the votes cast and was elected speaker. An election for speaker took place on March 4, 1867, at the start of the 40th Congress, following the 1866–67 elections in which Republicans won a majority of the seats. Schuyler Colfax received a majority of the votes cast and was re-elected speaker. An election for speaker took place on December 4, 1865, at the start of the 39th Congress, following the 1864–65 elections in which Republicans won a majority of the seats.
Gingrich had been a backbench rabble-rouser since coming to the House in 1978 and built up a cadre of supporters until he won the party's No. 2 power position as minority whip in 1989. He soon eclipsed the party's leader, Robert Michel, who was nearing retirement. She could activate a vote at any time so Johnson should know he is skating on thin ice. Just such a "motion to vacate the chair" was filed against Johnson in March by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. But Greene has yet to make the motion "privileged," which under the rules would necessitate a vote within two days.
An election for speaker took place on January 3, 1957, on the opening day of the 85th Congress, two months after the 1956 elections in which Democrats won a majority of the seats. An election for speaker took place on January 5, 1955, on the opening day of the 84th Congress, two months after the 1954 elections in which Democrats won a majority of the seats. Former speaker Sam Rayburn received a majority of the votes cast and was elected speaker, becoming the first member since Henry Clay in the 1820s to have a third stint as speaker.
The power of the speaker was greatly augmented during the tenure of the Republican Thomas Brackett Reed (1889–1891, 1895–1899). Reed, however, declared that members who were in the chamber but refused to vote would still count for the purposes of determining a quorum. Through these and other rulings, Reed ensured that the Democrats could not block the Republican agenda.
Library of Congress
Exhausted from the feuding, which unleashed a barrage of recriminations and violent threats against lawmakers, both the right wing and mainstream Republicans finally united to elect Mr. Johnson, 51, in a 220-to-209 vote. The table provides a complete list of speakers of the House of Representatives. Launched in 2004, GovTrack helps everyone learn about and track the activities of the United States Congress. The US has so far sent Ukraine roughly $111bn in weapons, equipment, humanitarian assistance and other aid since the start of the war more than two years ago. Democrats have said they may support Johnson in any effort by the Republican far-right to oust him over Ukraine aid.
In this scenario, the speaker is known for undercutting the president's agenda by blocking measures by the minority party or rejecting bills by the Senate. As the office has developed historically, however, it has taken on a clearly partisan cast, very different from the speakership of most Westminster-style legislatures, such as the speaker of the United Kingdom's House of Commons, which is meant to be scrupulously non-partisan. The speaker in the United States, by tradition, is the head of the majority party in the House of Representatives, outranking the majority leader. However, despite having the right to vote, the speaker usually does not participate in debate and only votes on the most significant bills. An election for speaker took place on January 3, 2021, at the start of the 117th Congress, two months after the 2020 elections in which Democrats won a slim majority of the seats.
He noted that Democrats provided support for legislation to raise the debt ceiling, avoid a government shutdown and provide disaster relief funding. Johnson has laid out a tentative legislative schedule to approve new spending and take up other pieces of legislation, but things could change quickly as he confronts the realities of governing, especially given the fractious nature of the Republican conference. Johnson now faces a daunting list of challenges, with a fast-approaching government shutdown chief among them. The House is staring down a deadline of Nov. 17, when current government funding expires.
A government shutdown is fast approaching, and the White House has requested a $106 billion emergency aid package for Israel, Ukraine and other priorities. Information about all receipts and expenditures of representatives, committees, leadership, and officers of the House. From 1977 to 1995, three successive Democratic speakers – Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, Jim Wright and Tom Foley – reinvigorated the speakership. They enlarged the party leadership structure, creating wider networks of loyalty among members of the majority party while strengthening support for their priorities. Any candidate for speaker can lose only a handful of votes and still win the speakership because Republicans hold such a small majority in the House.
"Due in large part to those usurpations, the election of 2020 has been riddled with an unprecedented number of serious allegations of fraud and irregularities," the House Republicans alleged. Democrats will nominate Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and they are being urged to vote for him, according to a notice from Democratic whip Katherine Clark's office. Rep. Pete Aguilar , the Democratic caucus chair, will deliver the nominating speech for Jeffries. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the chair of the House Republican conference, will deliver the speech nominating Johnson for speaker, according to a Republican aide. If all 221 Republicans and 212 Democrats mark themselves present, Johnson will need 217 votes to win the gavel.
The current state of internal politics among House Republicans is so unsettled that almost anything could happen at almost any time. Sam Rayburn, Henry Clay, Thomas Brackett Reed, Joseph William Martin, Jr., Frederick Muhlenberg, John W. Taylor, and Nancy Pelosi are the only Speakers of the House to have ever served in non-consecutive Congresses (i.e. another Speaker served in between each tenure). Sam Rayburn is the only person to have served as Speaker of the House for more than ten years. The first Speaker of the House was Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, elected during the first session of Congress in 1789.
Ryan, then just 45, was the youngest speaker in nearly 150 years but had already been party's vice presidential nominee on the 2012 ticket. Once he had Boehner's job, however, he experienced much the same internal strife. Ryan also had a strained relationship with then-President Donald Trump, with whom he had a falling out during the fall 2016 campaign. In April 2018, Ryan said he would not serve another term and left as the party was losing its majority that fall. The Senate and the White House are still controlled by Democrats and any spending bill passed will need Democratic support to become law and avert a shutdown. But what you hear from conservatives – at least in the minutes before and after Johnson won the speaker’s election – is they are willing to give some room for Johnson to maneuver in his new role.
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