House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) privately told House GOP lawmakers to remove him from the speakership if he can't get President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" passed, Politico reported on Thursday.
This pledge followed general discontent from Republicans about the House's adoption of the Senate budget resolution, which some members argue fails to make enough spending reductions to offset Trump's vision of a sweeping bill for tax cuts, energy deregulation, and border militarization, passed through a budget mechanism that insulates it from a Senate filibuster.
In a private meeting the night before, Johnson told the caucus "that they could oust him from the speakership if he doesn’t follow through with his fiscal promises, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss it. Johnson pledged to abide by the House budget instructions, including a minimum of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, for the domestic policy megabill that Republicans are now able to pursue on party lines after Thursday’s successful vote," said the report.
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The House rules permit a "motion to vacate" the speakership. This rule was brokered in 2023 as a condition for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy securing votes from the far-right Freedom Caucus to obtain the gavel, but it quickly led to chaos after a renegade group led by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), allegedly enraged about an ethics investigation into his sexual misconduct, triggered McCarthy's ouster. The House was plunged into chaos for weeks until Johnson was finally selected as a replacement.
Johnson's pledge to get the bill passed "was seen as a concrete expression of how serious he was and displayed his enthusiasm for moving President Donald Trump’s agenda forward, according to one of the people," said the report. "Some of the fiscal hawks saw it as a 'blood oath,' according to another person."
Just getting the budget framework resolution for Trump's bill has been a struggle, with the House and Senate broadly disagreeing on the fundamental approach of a single bill. And Johnson has had to deal with other complications in managing the House, including a weekslong bipartisan rebellion by far-right Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and a group of Democrats seeking rule changes for new mothers in Congress.