As Politico’s Katherine Tully McManus reported in February, a record six rule votes have failed during the 118th Congress. For you sports fans, losing a rule vote on the House floor when you’re in the majority is like shattering your ankle while lacing up your cleats before the season.
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To understand just how unusual failed rule votes are, look to history. Before Republicans gained control of the majority in the 2022 midterms, a rule vote hadn’t failed for two decades—since 2002 under House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican now in prison for child sex crimes.
Last September, a rule vote to proceed with a Pentagon funding bill failed under House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. A month later, McCarthy was ousted by his own party’s far-right flank, eight of whom voted with every Democrat, prompting a bitter, three-week House GOP civil war over McCarthy’s replacement.
[Tom] Emmer remained on as whip when Mike Johnson was finally elected House Speaker on October 25. But the whipping operation that had repeatedly humiliated McCarthy has not since improved. “He’s got the toughest job in Washington,” said Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, who, like several House GOP members, told The New Republic that Emmer is doing the best he can as whip, given Speaker Johnson’s one-vote majority in the House, the narrowest since the Great Depression.