Republicans in the House have been trying to get Speaker Johnson to push for a rule change on the Motion to Vacate. Specifically, they want the threshold changed so that it would take more than one person to bring up a motion to remove the Speaker.
But Johnson just made clear that, while he might agree with such a change, the House doesn’t have the votes and thus he’s not going to try and push for it:
Since the beginning of the 118th Congress, the House rule allowing a Motion to Vacate from a single member has harmed this office and our House majority.
Recently, many members have encouraged me to endorse a new rule to raise this threshold. While I understand the importance of…
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) April 18, 2024
Since the beginning of the 118th Congress, the House rule allowing a Motion to Vacate from a single member has harmed this office and our House majority.
Recently, many members have encouraged me to endorse a new rule to raise this threshold. While I understand the importance of that idea, any rule change requires a majority of the full House, which we do not have.
We will continue to govern under the existing rules.
Thomas Massie claimed that Johnson actually tried to change the rule, but didn’t have the votes:
The Speaker tried to change the rules to eliminate the motion to vacate but he didn’t have the votes today. https://t.co/2qv4zvayI3
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 18, 2024
There’s been some others weighing in on it today, but it’s moot now. The question is whether Johnson can get any Democrats to save him when the motion comes to the floor.