Speaker Mike Johnson is facing an extremely narrow majority in the House and tough vote math as Congress confronts upcoming battles over government funding, aid to Ukraine and Israel and border security.

At the start of the new year, Republicans control just 220 seats while Democrats control 213, which means the House GOP can’t afford to lose more than a few votes to pass party-line priorities. Additionally, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s office has announced that he will work remotely until returning to Washington in February as he recovers from a stem cell transplant.

The House Republican majority will shrink even further by the end of the month with Ohio GOP Rep. Bill Johnson resigning from Congress on January 21 to take a new job as president of Youngstown State University. At that point, Republicans will control 219 seats to 213 for Democrats.

In a rare event, Congress faces not one but two government shutdown deadlines early in the new year – on January 19 and February 2.

  • Rentlar
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    241 year ago

    Lose lose for Republicans… Compromise and the far-right goes bonkers calling Johnson RINO etc.

    Don’t compromise and the House Republicans continue to appear incompetent at doing anything.

    • @Conyak@lemmy.tf
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      151 year ago

      “…continue to BE incompetent at doing anything.” It’s not just an appearance.

      • Rentlar
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        81 year ago

        See, I know and understand that. However, Republicans are masters at doing nothing and deflecting the blame onto others. So the perception of their effectiveness to their constituents is important.

  • PugJesus
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    121 year ago

    Oh no, he might have to compromise with us DEMONRATS

    • qantravon
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      181 year ago

      I wonder if the Republicans will kick him out for compromising, like they did with McCarthy.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    41 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Speaker Mike Johnson is facing an extremely narrow majority in the House and tough vote math as Congress confronts upcoming battles over government funding, aid to Ukraine and Israel and border security.

    Additionally, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s office has announced that he will work remotely until returning to Washington in February as he recovers from a stem cell transplant.

    The House Republican majority will shrink even further by the end of the month with Ohio GOP Rep. Bill Johnson resigning from Congress on January 21 to take a new job as president of Youngstown State University.

    The most pressing issues are a pair of government shutdown deadlines in January and February and a high-stakes effort to strike a deal over border security and aid for Ukraine and Israel.

    Congress passed stopgap legislation in mid-November extending government funding until January 19 for priorities including military construction, veterans’ affairs, transportation, housing and the Energy Department.

    Johnson will have to balance competing demands from the far-right and more moderate factions of the conference, no easy task as Congress faces government shutdown battles and fights over hot-button issues that have long been contentious on Capitol Hill such as border security.


    The original article contains 553 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • @MicroWave@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Because it’s not a gift to about 4 million federal workers who would go without pay in a shutdown:

      “The politicians aren’t thinking about us down here on the ground floor doing the work,” said Booth, who is also a local liaison for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing federal workers. “Some of us live paycheck to paycheck. You take away a paycheck, how am I going to live for the next two weeks? How can I take care of my kids? How am I going to take care of my wife? And that type of mindset ends up causing bad things to go through some people’s minds and some people can’t get through it.”

      https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/government-shutdown-federal-workers-lose-pay-military-rcna116891

    • @stoly@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      LOL nice lie but you failed. This is precisely the sort of fiction that neocons salivate over.

      also, why do you delight in millions of lives being overturned for cheap political victories? you have an empathy problem there