Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson won re-election as speaker of the House on Friday after laying out fresh plans for controlling federal spending.
Johnson was able to secure the necessary 218 Republican votes on the first ballot after initial hold-outs Keith Self, R-Texas, and Ralph Norman, R-S.C., changed their vote ahead of the final tally.
One Republican, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, was then the only GOP member to vote against Johnson. Massie has repeatedly posted to social media that he would not be voting for Johnson.
Ahead of the vote, Johnson posted a set of commitments as speaker for the 119th Congress. This included a pledge to create a working group with “independent experts” to work with the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency and House committees to implement “spending reforms to protect the American taxpayer.” DOGE is essentially an advisory group led by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Some Republicans have pushed for DOGE and Congress to cut $2.5 trillion in mandatory spending over 10 years. Doing so would likely impact the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Previously, House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., said farm bill spending other than SNAP is unlikely to be targeted in reconciliation cuts.
“I think it’s great that we look in a serious way at the efficiency of the operation of government. I think there’s … certainly space within agriculture in terms of some inefficiencies, the fraud that occurs,” Thompson said Friday during the speaker vote.
Shortly after the vote, members of the House Freedom Caucus shared a letter with their GOP colleagues to explain why they ultimately voted for Johnson, and what they are expecting from his leadership. One of those expectations is that Johnson will "ensure any reconciliation package reduces spending and the deficit in real terms with respect to the dynamic score of tax and spending policies under recent growth trends."
The lawmakers also called for a reversal of the "massive subsidization of unhealthy foods" in SNAP to save taxpayer dollars and Make America Healthy Again. Restricting SNAP purchasing is a priority for Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., the lead author of the letter. Harris chairs the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.
These demands could tee up a difficult path for reconciliation and extending tax cuts included in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Budget and Ways and Means leaders have discussed taking a two-step reconciliation process, with the second reserved for addressing tax policy.
It would cost as much as $5 trillion to fully extend expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. However, Republicans have offered differing plans for addressing these costs, with some suggesting changing the Congressional Budget Office current law baseline used in 2017 to a current policy baseline for the extension. This would mean that the cost of extending existing tax cuts would not need to be offset even though it would still add to the deficit.
This appears to run counter to the Freedom Caucus calls to cut spending in the reconciliation process.
Following the vote, Norman said Johnson didn’t make any explicit promises in last minute negotiations, but he did commit to fighting for Trump’s agenda and including more conservatives in talks.
In upcoming reconciliation talks, Norman said there needs to be cuts up front rather than promises of future cuts. Additionally, reconciliation bills must reduce the deficit in addition to being fully paid for.
“If cut is defined as a reduction of the increase, that's not going to sit well for a lot of us, and we're not putting up with that, and neither do the American people deserve that,” Norman said.
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