The GOP conference will have just 220 members, two fewer than the five-seat majority that House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) struggled to lead since taking over for Kevin McCarthy, and Republicans can only afford to lose support from two of them to reach the 218 votes needed to approve legislation without support from Democrats, reported the Washington Post.
“Do the math," Johnson said, "we’ve got nothing to spare."
That margin will evaporate at the start of the next Congress because two GOP members are expected to join the Trump administration, and former congressman Matt Gaetz resigned in a failed bid for attorney general.
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Johnson will face intense pressure to deliver for Trump, who won back the presidency and has a Republican majority in the Senate, and GOP leaders are already discussing large-scale bills on border security and energy-related policies, as well as an economic package that would reauthorize Trump’s 2017 tax law.
“We could be the most consequential Congress of the modern era because we have to fix everything,” Johnson said. “We know how to work with a small majority; that’s our custom now.”
Pushback on those bills could force them to wait until the two vacant Florida seats are filled by special elections in April, but House Republicans are counting on Trump to pressure reluctant lawmakers into going along with the majority.
“We’ll call president Trump," said House Freedom Caucus Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC).
MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) warned GOP lawmakers who don't follow the mandate Trump believes he was given by voters that megadonors like Elon Musk will punish them by funding primary challengers – which the tech billionaire has already threatened to do.
“The way the House and the Senate needs to understand the mandate is that the American people want president Trump’s agenda done,” Greene said. “This wasn’t a ‘we support Republicans’ election.”
But some Republicans believe Johnson will be forced to rely on Democrats to pass legislation over the objections of a small faction of the GOP caucus, as he and McCarthy both had to do in the outgoing Congress, especially on days where Republican absences give them the majority for a day.
“Pragmatically, you’re going to have to have Democrats vote with you to make some of these dreams become a reality,” said Rep. Max L. Miller (R-OH). “That is going to be, I think, the challenge for some people within my party to accept. You still do need the other side, even though you do have a trifecta.”
