How House Speaker Mike Johnson Became America’s “Prime Minister”

You've heard of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

And what about US Prime Minister Mike Johnson?

These are the political circumstances facing House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. After all, he leads a “coalition government” in Congress.

We constantly hear about so-called “coalition governments” in foreign parliaments.

A coalition government exists when no party obtains an absolute majority of seats. Thus, various factions come together to form a “coalition” and appoint a Prime Minister.

Coalition governments are common in Japan. In the United Kingdom, former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. This ended a long dominance of the Labor Party in the United Kingdom. It was the first coalition government in Britain since the 1970s.

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The United States does not have a parliamentary system, but the House of Representatives functions almost like a parliament. This is a coalition government made up of many Democrats and various groups of Republicans depending on the issue.

Thus, Johnson could be seen as the prime minister of this coalition government. He secured the votes of Republicans to elect him as the successor to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last October. In true parliamentary style, the House even held a “vote of no confidence” in McCarthy's leadership. Johnson faces a similar threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., over the coalition he built with Republicans and Democrats to avert government shutdowns and pass the government's agenda. foreign aid.

McCarthy's “government” fell when he relied on Democrats to approve bills to raise the debt ceiling and pass an emergency spending measure last October. But unlike McCarthy, Johnson's mandate remains intact. Even if his grip on power is tenuous.

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The phenomenon of a “coalition government” for Johnson began to emerge last fall, shortly after Johnson shook the gavel. Johnson met Cameron, now Britain's foreign secretary, at the Capitol. But unlike Johnson, Cameron had already experienced the difficulties of a coalition government. The impasse of a “hung parliament” in 2010 forced Cameron to form a coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, leaving Labor on the sidelines.

“There are some very delicate issues to be resolved,” Cameron whispered to the new president as they met at the Capitol last December.

“Yes, there is,” Johnson told Cameron. “We're navigating them as best we can at the moment. I have a three-vote majority and we just got announcements today that it's even smaller than that.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” Cameron said.

But he understood what the beginning speaker wanted to do.

“Well, in my first government I didn't have a majority, so I had to put together a coalition,” Cameron said.

“I know you can relate,” Johnson said at the time.

Well, Johnson's “coalition government” has shrunk further.

The speaker had a cushion of three seats in December when he spoke with Cameron. But Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., is resigning. That would reduce the slim Republican majority to a two-seat margin.

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Here is the new distribution of the House, after Gallagher: 429 members in total, including 217 Republicans and 212 Democrats. This leaves six vacancies. If Democratic New York State Sen. Tim Kennedy wins over Republican Gary Dickson in a special election in Western New York next week, the margin will narrow to one seat unique. The distribution would be as follows: 430 members including 217 Republicans and 213 Democrats. The GOP could only lose one vote in a roll call and still win without help from the other side.

This is where the coalition government comes in. Some of this even goes back to the McCarthy era.

Last June, a combination of Democrats and Republicans voted to raise the debt ceiling. Seventy-one Republicans voted “no,” so the Democrats took over. All of this was happening on McCarthy's watch.

In November, Johnson was the speaker. He approved a bill to temporarily fund the government. Ninety-three Republicans voted “no.” But once again, the Democrats saved the Republican Party. Only two Democrats voted “no.”

Johnson tried a new two-step approach to avoid a late winter government shutdown. He lost 83 Republicans on a bill to fund part of the government. Then Johnson lost 112 Republicans on a bill that funded about 70 percent of the government.

There was soon a vote to renew Section 702 of FISA, a controversial foreign surveillance program. Libertarian-minded conservatives and progressives were concerned about the plan. There was heated debate over whether warrants were essential to eavesdrop on Americans' communications. The House passed the bill. But a bipartisan coalition of 88 Republicans and 59 Democrats voted “no.”

The most controversial bill of all was the one concerning Ukraine. The “Three Mikes” handle the bulk of foreign policy issues for Republicans: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, House Intelligence Committee Chairman House Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala. . Everyone lobbied to help Ukraine, and the House passed the bill. But 112 Republicans voted “no.” That's well over half of the GOP conference. Democrats have put forward significant numbers on all foreign aid bills. But the minority party made the difference in Ukraine.

This speaks to the “coalition” that currently exists in the House.

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There is no better demonstration of the concept of coalition in the House than last week. That’s when the House had to approve a “rule” to set aside foreign aid programs. In the House, the body generally must approve a basic set of rules before introducing a bill. The “rule” dictates how much time the House allots for debate and what amendments, if any, are admissible. If the House does not greenlight the rule, the underlying legislation remains blocked.

It is customary for majority party members to vote yes to the rule (since it is written by their party) and for minority members to vote no.

Republicans have struggled to dislodge the “rules” of the legislation from the Rules Committee. But Democrats helped do that last week, a rare move, even though Republicans dominate that committee's membership.

In fact, Republicans have blown up a staggering seven “rules” in the House since last summer. In other words, Republicans are voting against introducing their own bills. The House has only seen two rules collapse since the late 1990s.

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So, last Friday, the “rule” regarding the foreign aid plan was presented to the House. Johnson's coalition government has swung into action again. The House approved the rule by a large majority: 316-94. But in this case, an astonishing 165 Democrats voted yes, compared to just 151 Republicans.

A smaller group of Democrats helped the House approve a rule last year to raise the debt ceiling. But no one had seen so many members of the minority party bail out the majority party on such a rule since 1964. That's when then-minority Republicans helped the House pass a rule on rights legislation civic.

It's unclear how long this may last for Johnson.

Greene could still try to unseat him. The Georgia Republican is unlikely to have the votes to do so. Republicans struggled to elect a president last fall. Depending on the level of unrest, whoever wins will likely have to form a coalition and become a de facto “Prime Minister.” Alternatively, the House could consider the possibility of appointing another leader, perhaps “Prime Minister” Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.