House Speaker Mike Johnson could be unseated by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, threatening the coalition government Johnson built last year with both Republicans and Democrats. (Drew Angerer/Chip Somodevilla)
The phenomenon of a "coalition government" for Johnson started emerging last fall, shortly after Johnson clasped the gavel. Johnson met at the Capitol with Cameron, now serving as the British foreign secretary. But unlike Johnson, Cameron had already experienced the travails of a coalition government. An impasse of a "hung parliament" in 2010 meant Cameron had to form a coalition between the Tories and Liberal Democrats, leaving Labour at the curb.
"There are some very tricky issues to deal with," Cameron whispered to the new speaker as they huddled at the Capitol last December.
"Yes there are," Johnson said to Cameron. "We're navigating them as best we can at the moment. I have a three-vote majority and we just got some announcements today that it's even smaller than that."
"Oh, I didn’t know that," Cameron said.
But he understood what the rookie speaker was in for.
"Well, my first government, I didn’t have the majority, so I had to have a coalition," said Cameron.
"I know you can relate," said Johnson at the time.
Well, now Johnson’s "governing coalition" has shrunk even further.
The speaker had a three-seat cushion in December when he spoke with Cameron. But Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., is resigning. That will shrink the meager Republican majority to a two-seat margin.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE CALLS JOHNSON'S FOREIGN AID PACKAGE HIS '3RD BETRAYAL' OF AMERICAN PEOPLE
House Speaker Mike Johnson has created a coalition within the House of Representatives where he essentially acts as prime minister. (Chip Somodevilla)
There was no better testament to the coalition concept in the House than last week. That’s when the House needed to approve a "rule" to put the foreign aid packages on the floor. In the House, the body usually needs to approve a set of ground rules before bringing a piece of legislation to the floor. The "rule" dictates how much time the House allocates for debate and what amendments – if any – are in order. If the House doesn’t greenlight the rule, the underlying legislation is stuck.
It's customary that majority party members vote yes on the rule (since it’s written by their party) and minority members vote no.
Republicans have struggled to even dislodge "rules" for legislation from the Rules Committee. But Democrats helped out on that last week – a rare move – even though Republicans dominate the membership on that committee.
In fact, Republicans have blown up a staggering seven "rules" on the House floor since last summer. In other words, Republicans are voting against bringing their own bills to the floor. The House had only witnessed two rules lose on the floor since the late 1990s.
So last Friday, the "rule" for the foreign aid plan hit the House floor. Johnson’s coalition government swung into action again. The House approved the rule by a wide margin: 316-94. But in this case, an astonishing 165 Democrats voted yes – compared to just 151 Republicans.
A smaller group of Democrats helped the House approve a rule last year to lift the debt ceiling. But no one had seen so many members of the minority party bail out the majority party on a rule like that since 1964. That’s when Republicans – then in the minority – helped the House adopt a rule on civil rights legislation.
It remains unclear how long this can go on for Johnson.
Greene could still try to unseat him. It’s doubtful the Georgia Republican has the votes to do so. Republicans struggled to elect a speaker last fall. Depending on the level of turmoil, whoever would win likely needs to form a coalition – and become a de facto "prime minister." Otherwise, the House could be looking at the possibility of another leader – perhaps "Prime Minister" Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Chad Pergram currently serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.
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