Declaring the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant.

Bill: 118-hres-1209
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Greene, Marjorie Taylor [R-GA-14]
Introduced: 2024-05-08
Policy area: Congress
Subjects: Congressional leadership

House of Representatives
Latest action: action_date: 2024-05-08
text: Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

Summaries:

tv_txt: IV 118th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 1209 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 8, 2024 Ms. Greene of Georgia submitted the following resolution; which was laid on the table RESOLUTION Declaring the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives to be vacant.

Whereas the House Republican Conference elected Mike Johnson on October 25, 2023, after three-and-a-half weeks of trying to decide on a new Speaker of the House; Whereas Mike Johnson sent the Republican Conference a letter making promises as to what type of Speaker he would be and outlining his plans going forward. Mike Johnson put forth seven tenets that would guide the Conference under his speakership: (1) Restore trust by ensuring total transparency, open processes, and regular order. (2) Advance a comprehensive policy agenda supported by Conference consensus. (3) Promote individual Members, and thus the whole team, by working to understand and emphasize each Member's unique strengths, district dynamics and challenges, and individual goals and objectives. (4) Engage Members in productive working groups to formulate solutions in key policy areas and enhance our internal communications and team building. (5) Effectively message to persuasively inform the Republican base and the American people of our policy agenda, why we are pursuing it, and how it will ensure liberty, opportunity, and security for all Americans. (6) Build and utilize external coalitions in the conservative ecosphere, including think tanks, policy groups, and other allied organizations that can contribute to our efforts. (7) Develop and grow our majority by building upon our resources and expanding the base to successfully advance our conservative vision and agenda. Whereas Speaker Johnson has not lived up to a single one of his self-imposed tenets; Whereas Speaker Johnson allowed the Conference only one day, rather than 72 hours, to review a 1000-plus page bill to which no amendments could be offered, rather than ensure total transparency, open processes, and regular order; Whereas Speaker Johnson worked with Democrats to produce appropriations texts, NDAA text, and other legislative items, rather than with Republicans to understand and emphasize each Member’s unique strengths and engage with them; Whereas Speaker Johnson relied on majority Democrat support to pass a two-part omnibus spending bill, rather than advancing a policy agenda supported by Conference consensus; Whereas, on December 1, 2023, Speaker Johnson failed to protect the Republican majority when he allowed multiple votes to remove another Republican from the House of Representatives. It was unprecedented for a Member to be removed from Congress by a two-thirds vote prior to conviction of a crime. To this day, the Republican expelled from the House under Speaker Johnson has not been convicted of a crime. Meanwhile, a Democrat now holds that seat; Whereas Speaker Johnson supported fully funding abortion, the trans agenda, the climate agenda, foreign wars, and Biden's border crisis, rather than “ensuring liberty, opportunity, and security for all Americans;” Whereas Speaker Johnson relied on Democrat votes on at least two occasions, with the first transgression occurring on March 22, 2024, with House passage of H.Res. 1102—Part 2 of the Johnson/Schumer omnibus—and the second transgression occurring on April 20, 2024, with House passage of H.R. 8035—the 61-billion-dollar Ukraine funding bill. On both occasions, the majority of the majority —112 Republicans—voted against the measures, while only 101 voted in favor; Whereas before Kevin McCarthy was ousted as Speaker, our Conference had passed seven appropriations bills, which were some of the strongest conservative bills passed in decades. Speaker Johnson refused to continue this important process. He instead led us to another CR on January 18, 2024, and got it passed with the support of 207 Democrats and only 107 Republicans, while 106 Republicans voted against it; Whereas Speaker Johnson passed a third CR, this time calling it a process CR, as if that made continuing Nancy Pelosi’s budget yet again any different from the previous CRs; Whereas with little to no communication with our conference, Speaker Johnson passed the first minibus appropriations bill on March 6, and passed the second minibus appropriations bill two weeks later, on March 22; Whereas, a two-part omnibus, split into two minibuses, was crammed down our throats and passed under suspension of the rules, with only one day to review it; Whereas Speaker Johnson’s omnibus did nothing to stop Biden’s deadly border invasion—it fully funded it. Mike Johnson did nothing to stop the energy-killing Green New Deal climate agenda—he fully funded it. He did nothing to stop the weaponized DOJ and FBI—he fully funded them. He did nothing to stop the trans agenda on kids—he fully funded it. He did nothing to stop full term abortions—he fully funded them. He did nothing to stop the fueling of foreign forever wars—he fully funded them; Whereas, on April 18, 2024, the Rules Committee passed H. Res. 1160—the rule providing for consideration of the 95-billion-dollar foreign funding package—by a vote of 9 to 3. Notably, all Democrat members of the Committee voted to advance the measure to the floor while three Republicans opposed it. It is unprecedented for members of the minority party to advance a resolution out of the Rules Committee. Since 1995, there have been a few instances of rules advancing out of Committee with minority support; however, H. Res. 1160 is the only instance where this was done to bypass opposition from members of the majority party; Whereas the last instance an appropriations measure which passed the House failed to include a majority of the majority was on final passage of the FY2015 Department of Homeland Security House appropriations bill during the 114th Congress. In the months following this failure, Speaker Boehner announced his resignation; Whereas, in a January 26, 2024, Dear Colleague, Speaker Johnson called the Senate supplemental and border security legislation, dead on arrival in the House. Likewise, in January 2024, Speaker Johnson took a trip to the U.S.­ Mexico border where he said, If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin by defending America’s national security; Whereas, in the months following his border trip, Speaker Johnson introduced a 95-billion-dollar foreign aid supplemental with no border security attached; Whereas excuses like, this is just how you have to govern in divided government, are pathetic, weak, and unacceptable. Even with our razor-thin Republican majority, we could have at least secured the border, with it being the number one issue in the country, and the issue that is causing Biden to trail President Trump in poll after poll; Whereas Speaker Johnson’s capitulation on his promise to secure the border came on the heels of Laken Riley being brutally murdered, women and children being raped by illegal alien monsters, and our own Border Patrol and Texas National Guard being run over by hordes of military-aged illegals; Whereas great legislation like H.R. 2 and the Laken Riley Act are only messaging bills unless we fight to enforce them in our government funding bills; Whereas, while serving on the House Judiciary Committee, Mike Johnson was a strong defender of individual liberties and was the Chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government. Despite his history as a defender of civil liberties, on April 12, 2024, Mike Johnson cast the deciding vote against requiring a warrant for U.S. person queries of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702 data; Whereas our Conference could have also taken out funding for abortion and the trans agenda on kids if our own Speaker would have allowed us to offer amendments. Instead, Mike Johnson worked with Chuck Schumer rather than with the Conference, and gave Joe Biden and the Democrats everything they wanted—no different from how a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries would have done; Whereas Speaker Johnson fully funded Special Counsel Jack Smith's witch hunt and 91 indictments against President Trump, our Republican Presidential nominee. House Republicans could have used our power of the purse to stop this, but Speaker Johnson didn't even let us try; Whereas Joe Biden's weaponized DOI is arresting a new January 6th election protestor every single day and putting nonviolent political enemies, including veterans, mothers and fathers, and grandparents in jail for years; Whereas our pro-life Christian conservative Republican Speaker Mike Johnson fully funded the DOJ as it is prosecuting and convicting peaceful pro-life activists who are facing eleven years in jail, again refusing to allow Republicans to offer amendments to stop these injustices; Whereas actions are the only thing that matter, and words are meaningless without following through on them. By passing the Democrats' agenda and handcuffing Republicans' ability to influence legislation, our elected Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has aided and abetted the Democrats and the Biden administration in destroying our country; Whereas removing this Uniparty Speaker will not give the Speaker's gavel to the Democrats, which would only happen if Republicans actually vote, for Hakeem Jeffries. In fact, Minority Leader Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, and other high-ranking Democrats have publicly stated they will save Mike Johnson from a vote to vacate him. In a recent interview, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “Even though we're in the minority. . .We effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority;” Whereas our country is nearly 35 trillion dollars in debt, and about 40 billion dollars are added to the debt every day. Our border is overrun by illegal invaders and terrorists from over 160 countries. Our people are being killed by the hundreds every single day by fentanyl, and Mike Johnson refuses to do anything about it; Whereas Mike Johnson is ill-equipped to handle the rigors of the job of Speaker of the House and has allowed a Uniparty—one that fuels foreign wars, tramples on civil liberties, and increases our disastrous national debt—to take complete control of the House of Representatives; and Whereas Speaker Johnson's tenure is defined by one self-serving characteristic: When given a choice between advancing Republican priorities or allying with Democrats to preserve his own personal power, Johnson regularly chooses to ally himself with Democrats: Now, therefore, be it

That the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives is hereby declared to be vacant.