House Republicans Fret Over Discharge Petition Against Mike Johnson

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) talks to reporters during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center on February 14, 2024 in Washington, DC. Johnson has criticized a Senate-approved military aid package.

Republicans in the House of Representatives are fretting about the possibility of a discharge petition aimed at bringing a $95.34 billion package of military aid to U.S. allies to the floor in defiance of Speaker Mike Johnson.

Johnson has indicated that he will not allow consideration of the bill, which the Senate passed on Tuesday by a vote of 70-29, because it does not contain measures to deal with the U.S.-Mexico border.

Republican members of the House appear unwilling to support a Democratic effort to force consideration of the bill using a discharge petition, which requires 218 members to sign on and could undermine Johnson’s leadership.

For a discharge petition to be successful, some Republicans would have to join Democrats in supporting it. Following the election of Democrat Tom Suozzi in New York’s 3rd district on Tuesday, the GOP will control 219 seats to Democrats’ 213 once Suozzi is sworn into office.

Newsweek has reached out to Johnson’s office via email for comment.

The Senate-approved package contains $60 billion of military aid for Ukraine along with $14 billion for Israel, $8 billion for Taiwan and $9.2 billion in humanitarian assistance.

Johnson criticized the bill on Monday and suggested he would not place it before the House, saying that senators “should have gone back to the drawing board to include real border security provisions that would actually help end the ongoing catastrophe.”

Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly suggested on Tuesday that the bill could win more than 300 votes in the House if it’s allowed to come to the floor, but Republicans appear reluctant to back a discharge petition that would permit a vote.

Connolly also acknowledged the difficulties facing Republicans who may wish to support the effort.

“It’s very, very difficult, if you’re in the majority, to sign a discharge petition, because it has other implications, and it’s considered a real disloyal act in your caucus,” Connolly said. “So there’s real risk in doing that.”

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has said his party “will use every available legislative tool” to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.

Nonetheless, a discharge petition remains a remote prospect as no House Republican has yet signed on to the effort. The last successful discharge petition was in 2015, according to the Congressional Research Service.

“The job of the speaker, ultimately, is to control the floor of the House,” GOP Representative Warren Davidson told D.C.-based media outlet NOTUS on Wednesday.

“Of course it would be a failure for the speaker to lose control of the floor,” he said.

Republican Representative Don Bacon, a strong supporter of Ukraine, indicated he wanted to discuss the matter with Johnson but he has not ruled out a discharge petition.

“My first step is to work with the speaker and go from there,” he said on Tuesday, while Republican Representative John Duarte told Axioshe was “very reserved about undermining [the] speaker.”

Representative Thomas Massie told NOTUS that discharge petitions are “violence against the speaker.”

Representative Bob Good, chair of the conservative Freedom Caucus, cast doubt on the possibility of his GOP colleagues joining a discharge petition.

“I don’t think they’ll do that,” Good told Axios, pointing to the lack of recent discharge petitions and adding that he does not “fear” the threat of a petition.

Representatives Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene both suggested a successful discharge petition would not be a failure on Johnson’s part in remarks to NOTUS on Wednesday.

Gaetz told the outlet it would be “a failure on the part of the people that would sign such an America last discharge petition,” while Greene said “I don’t know how you could say that’s a failure of leadership.”

Speaker Johnson told reporters on Tuesday that he was opposed to discharge petitions and he hoped “that would not be considered.”

House Republicans may be unwilling to undermine Johnson’s leadership following the removal of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in October last year and the difficult process that led to his election. Johnson was elected on the fourth ballot after three rounds of voting failed to produce a winner.

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