House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is set to face his own ouster after expediting bipartisan spending legislation through the lower chamber on Friday, just hours before a scheduled government shutdown.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate against the speaker on Friday, accusing the speaker of failing to do more to secure America’s border and for working with Democrats on a bipartisan spending deal.
“We need a new speaker,” Greene told reporters Friday. “This is not personal against Mike Johnson. He’s a very good man, and I have respect for him as a person, but he is not doing the job. The proof is in the vote count today. He passed a budget that should have never been brought to the floor, did not represent our conference, and it was passed with the Democrats.”
The motion was one paragraph and filed as House Resolution 1103.
The timeline for movement on an actual floor vote remains unclear, as Greene didn’t file as a privileged resolution that would have forced more immediate action. Lawmakers proceeded with two-week spring break plans on Friday, and her motion won’t be considered until the House returns from recess in April.
“I don’t have a timeline,” Greene said. “That will be a rolling issue that we’ll be judging and making decisions by, but I assure you, I’m not the only one. I have support on this from others in my conference. I’m not introducing this to throw the House into chaos. Committees will continue doing their work. Investigations will continue.”
The threat comes after weeks of frustration from hard-line Republicans toward Johnson, which came to a boiling point this week after the speaker led passage Friday of a $1.2 trillion spending agreement for the remaining six appropriations bills in a series of closed-door negotiations without lawmaker input.
“Speaker Johnson always listens to the concerns of members but is focused on governing,” Johnson’s spokesman Raj Shah said. “He will continue to push conservative legislation that secures our border, strengthens our national defense, and demonstrates how we’ll grow our majority.”
While several Republicans have decried the spending legislation and voted against it on the floor on Friday, few have publicly said whether they would retaliate against Johnson or threaten his leadership position. But that changed on Friday morning when Greene told Steve Bannon on his War Room show that a possible motion to vacate would be made in a “minute by minute” decision — later filing such a motion just hours later.
Greene has repeatedly criticized Johnson’s leadership after the last few months, arguing the speaker has violated the same Republican rules that were used to oust his predecessor just five months earlier.
“Our Republican majority started out with all these rules and sweeping changes: single appropriation bills, 72 hours to read bills, open rules, open amendments,” Greene told the Washington Examiner on Thursday, “and this breaks every single one of those rules under the new ‘conservative speaker.’”
The motion comes after the House passed its final appropriations package on Friday, sending the legislation to the Senate to avert a government shutdown scheduled for midnight. Congress is then scheduled to adjourn for a two-week recess.
Johnson, for his part, has repeatedly brushed off any threats to oust him from the speakership, noting he would not make decisions based on whether he’ll be punished by his fellow Republicans.
“I don’t operate in fear, no,” Johnson told Punchbowl on Thursday. “We have to do the job, we have to govern and that’s what we’re doing day by day.”
The threat comes less than six months after the House voted to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), marking the first time lawmakers have removed the chamber’s top leader. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) started that motion to vacate against McCarthy and was one of eight Republicans and all Democrats who voted to remove him from office.
Immediately, some Republicans and even Democrats voiced opposition to the removal of another speaker. The first effort left the House leaderless for three months and unable to advance any legislation.
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Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who was one of the eight who ousted McCarthy, said for now, he stands by Johnson.
“I don’t know where [I’ll] be in two weeks, but right now, I can tell you I’m a no,” he said.
