Two Democrats help Mike Johnson overcome Republican revolt in the House

The House of Representatives moved forward with the Republicans' legislative agenda on Tuesday after House Speaker Mike Johnson overcame a rebellion within his own party with the help of two moderate Democrats: Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington.

On the same day that the House passed the Continuing Resolution (CR) to avert a government shutdown, it also passed a procedural resolution establishing the conditions under which the House will debate and vote on four initiatives. Simply put, this vote paved the way for those four bills to be debated and voted on on the House floor. Without this approval, the bills could not move forward under the conditions set by Republican Leader Johnson.

Specifically, the bills cover the following topics: streamlining permits for mining and mineral processing projects (H.R. 1501), extending certain regulations designed to protect the North Atlantic right whale, and providing greater leeway to lobster fishermen (H.R. 9436), a resolution condemning socialism in all its forms (H. Res. 1490), and another that makes certain federal funding for universities contingent on their not participating in specific trade boycotts against Israel (H.R. 4795).

The vote ended with 210 votes in favor and 208 against. Since five Republicans voted against it, Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez ultimately saved the Republican leadership's procedural resolution. With the resolution passed, the House cleared the way to debate and vote on the four Republican initiatives on the floor.

"Had the procedural vote failed, Speaker Mike Johnson would have faced immediate pressure to cut the House session short and send members home ahead of next week’s GOP midterm convention in Dallas," Politico explained.

Congressmen Chip Roy, Andy Harris, Ralph Norman, Clay Higgins and Pete Sessions were the only Republicans who opposed the resolution. The group expressed its disapproval of the Republican leadership's handling of efforts to prevent a government shutdown.

"We passed the rule to continue business this week. Republicans are here to work. We have a lot more left to do. We're gonna keep demonstrating the American people every day that their priorities are our priorities," Johnson said after the vote.

Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez belong to the more moderate wing of the Democratic Party in the House and are members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of more centrist Democratic lawmakers. However, their vote surprised even Democratic leadership.

Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader, told reporters that he had received no prior notice from the two congressmen. Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House, expressed her astonishment at the outcome of the vote: “I, as speaker, never — we didn’t even consider that anybody would do that. We never had that problem, so I’m disappointed that they did that.”