March 22, 2024 10:10 AM UTC

MTG Files Motion To Oust Speaker Mike Johnson

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• by: Colorado Pols

As CNN reports this morning, existential chaos is brewing in the narrowly GOP-controlled U.S. House for a third time in less than a year:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has filed a motion to oust Mike Johnson from the speakership, according to sources familiar with the matter, amid anger about the government funding bill.

The House would have to consider Greene’s motion within two legislative days after she is recognized. The chamber heads to recess for two weeks on Friday afternoon.

As the New York Times reports, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate the speaker’s chair came after passage this morning of a spending agreement brokered between Speaker Mike Johnson and the White House, narrowly averting a shutdown that would otherwise have begun this weekend:

The House on Friday passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September and avert a partial shutdown at the end of the week, setting off a G.O.P. mutiny that threatened Speaker Mike Johnson’s grasp on the gavel.

In a 286-134 vote that came down to the wire, Democrats rallied to provide the support to overcome a furious swell of opposition by conservative Republicans.

Infuriated by the painstakingly negotiated bipartisan legislation to keep funding flowing for government agencies including the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, the hard right revolted, and as the vote was still ongoing, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia began the process of threatening a snap vote to oust Mr. Johnson, according to a person familiar with her plans who requested anonymity to describe her thinking.

We haven’t heard as of this writing whether or not Rep. Lauren Boebert will be joining her archrival in calling for Johnson’s head, but it’s obviously more complicated for Boebert given Johnson’s endorsement of Boebert in the CO-04 primary. Boebert nonetheless has left the door open to replacing Johnson in previous moments of tension, so we’ll have to see where she lands over the upcoming recess. With the House headed for a two-week recess, MTG’s motion to dump Mike Johnson will now fester in the court of public opinion before lawmakers reconvene to consider it–which again, after the concessions granted by now-ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, they must.

All we can say for the least productive Congress of our lifetime is, it’s a good day to no longer give a Buck.