House Democrats revealed a big problem for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday morning: he has temporarily lost his majority.
The very narrow spread between the two parties in the House means Johnson can't lose more than a handful of votes. However, on Wednesday morning, Democrats held a procedural vote, Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman wrote on X. There were 38 Republicans missing.
Sherman called it, "A useful exercise to see who is missing. Johnson is on the floor, looking carefully at the board to see which members haven’t made it back yet."
He noted that Johnson held the vote open for a "long time," but the numbers didn't budge. After holding the vote open for over an hour, Johnson was able to whittle that down to nine Republican absences.
"Others simply haven’t made it back. They need everyone here to do this vote," said Sherman.
If the procedural vote passes, Republicans would be on hold for a vote over the 2026 budget bill.
They "would have to go back to the rules and report a new rule," Sherman added.
As of publication, the vote was held open for more than 80 minutes.
UPDATE: The final vote was 212 Republicans to 211 Democrats. The Democrats had one absence, and Republicans appear to still be missing 9 Republicans.
They have now moved on to debate the 2026 budget bill.
