Speaker Johnson gets rebellious GOP majority in line with tough fights ahead to pass Trump agenda

Speaker Mike Johnson scored a significant triumph in a dramatic single-ballot victory Friday to retain the gavel, suturing together a united front from an often fractured House Republican Conference.

House Republicans must stay united to move President-elect Donald Trump’s lofty agenda with their paper-thin majority.

That unity will hold through Monday’s joint session of Congress to certify Mr. Trump’s election victory. Fractures will likely emerge when Republicans start hammering out the details of Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda, including border security, energy policy, an extension and expansion of tax cuts enacted during his first administration, and deep cuts to government bureaucracy.

“We’ve got a big agenda,” the Louisiana Republican said after winning the speakership. He said Republicans were already mapping the legislative strategy, “so we’re excited.”

Mr. Johnson said he was proud not to have cut any deals to win the speakership, but he did offer assurances to flip the votes of two Republicans, Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas, who initially opposed him.

Only Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, ultimately opposed Mr. Johnson.

The sudden unification showed “that everybody understands that we have been given a mandate” and that people will “be able to put the big picture over their own personal circumstance,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden, Wisconsin Republican, told The Washington Times.

“Is everybody going to get everything they want? No,” he said. “But if you get everything you want all of the time you are ruling, you are not governing.”

Mr. Johnson still faces roadblocks, particularly from hard-liners in the House Freedom Caucus.

Mr. Norman told The Times that the speaker’s message to the two holdouts was: “You’re going to have to trust me to push the Trump agenda.”

He said it was worth the extra time huddling with Mr. Johnson behind closed doors. The speaker vote was held open to underscore the severity of the Freedom Caucus’ concerns, which boil down to a commitment to cut spending and reduce the deficit.

“And he was very blunt, too,” Mr. Norman said. “He said, ‘If I don’t do what I’m telling you, I’m going to do in this small room, put me out, do the motion to vacate.’ And I respect that.”

The motion to vacate is the procedure used to oust a speaker that wrought chaos on the House after Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, was booted in 2023. After the speaker vote on Friday, Republicans voted to update House rules and raise the threshold for triggering the motion to vacate from one party member to nine in the majority — one more than the eight Republicans who voted to depose Mr. McCarthy.

Eleven Freedom Caucus members, including Mr. Norman, released a letter pressing Mr. Johnson to make good on his promises to move the Trump agenda or “there is always room to negotiate on so-called ‘leadership’ positions under the rules.”

Rep. Andrew Ogles, one of the signatories, said the letter concerns accountability.

“There’s a tall menu that has been delivered to us by the American people,” Mr. Ogles said. “It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be messy, but we have a responsibility to get it done.”

Asked whether Mr. Johnson’s job is in peril if he doesn’t deliver, Mr. Ogles said, “Nobody wants to have a sword over their head, but we have the motion to vacate for a reason. He’s been given a job. He’s got to go do that job.”

He said Mr. Johnson has committed to facilitating more conversation with rank-and-file members on legislation “before it gets to the floor and kind of derails.”

Critics of Mr. Johnson decried deals he cut with Democrats to advance must-pass government funding legislation and to provide billions of dollars in additional aid to Ukraine.

Armed with a slimmer majority than in the previous Congress, Mr. Johnson may again have to deal with Democrats, particularly on government funding and other bills subject to the Senate filibuster.

Because Republicans don’t have a filibuster-proof Senate majority, they plan to advance the most critical pieces of their legislative agenda through budget reconciliation. The procedure is not subject to the filibuster but comes with strict rules requiring legislative changes to have a significant budgetary impact.

Republicans huddled on Saturday to begin detailing tax and spending reforms they can pass through the reconciliation process.

Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, a Texas Republican who helped lead the retreat, said the broad goals are to lock in and expand on the tax cuts from 2017, secure the border, enact good energy policies and rein in spending.

Still, he said, legislation that can pass through a diverse Republican conference with a razor-thin majority will require trade-offs and compromise.

“Failure is not an option,” Mr. Arrington told The Times.

Mr. Johnson said Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that Mr. Trump preferred “one big, beautiful bill” rather than splitting his legislative wish list into two reconciliation bills.

“No one is going to love every element of a large package like that. But there will be enough elements in there to pull everyone along,” he said. “I think keeping it together is how we’ll get it done.”

That could set up a clash with the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, said he wants to pass a border-focused bill in the early weeks of the new Congress and take more time to negotiate the more complex agenda items such as tax and spending cuts.

Indeed, Mr. Johnson predicted that Republicans could pass the colossal package out of the House as soon as April 3 so it can clear the Senate and land on Mr. Trump’s desk by the end of April, or “in a worst case scenario, Memorial Day.”

Mr. Johnson affirmed that Republicans plan to use the reconciliation bill to raise the debt ceiling by June. Experts estimate that by that time, the Treasury Department will exhaust extraordinary measures needed to keep the U.S. from defaulting on its obligations now that a debt ceiling suspension has been lifted.

In December, 38 House Republicans voted against a Trump-inspired plan to extend the debt limit for two years in a bill to temporarily extend government funding. They objected because it did not contain any spending cuts.

Afterward, House Republicans and key Trump advisers agreed to a tentative plan to use the reconciliation process to raise the debt limit by $1.5 trillion while cutting spending by $2.5 trillion.

Identifying those cuts will likely be the trickiest part of the reconciliation package.

Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, said he still has reservations about Mr. Johnson’s ability to deliver on his promises. He is concerned that the speaker and other Republicans will push “to do pie-in-the-sky nonsense and do a debt ceiling increase without getting spending cuts.”

“What I won’t do is be browbeat into supporting any kind of a vote on the floor that does not measure up,” Mr. Roy said.

Mr. Norman said he would object to a compromise where “there’s no real cuts, that it’s just nibbling around the edges.”

Moderate Republicans won tough reelection races in November, allowing them to hold on to the party’s slim majority in the House. They will need to do the same again in 2026.

Rep. Don Bacon, Nebraska Republican, said he is not opposed to cutting spending but is worried that the deep cuts conservatives seek are not politically achievable without bipartisan buy-in.

“If we try to balance the budget without Democrats, we’ll be in the minority next time,” he told The Times. “It’s going to be too much pain. It’s got to be a joint effort.”