Washington
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House Speaker Mike Johnson’s narrow majority has shrunk further after Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn in as the newest member of the House after a weeks-long delay.
The swearing in got here forward of a essential vote in the chamber to go a Senate-approved invoice to reopen the federal authorities and put an finish to the longest shutdown in US historical past.
The partisan breakdown in the House is now 219 Republicans and 214 Democrats, with two seats nonetheless vacant. Speaker Mike Johnson can solely lose two Republicans on any party-line vote.
The Arizona Democrat’s swearing will pave the best way for a extremely anticipated vote to compel the discharge of the Jeffrey Epstein case recordsdata. Grijalva is anticipated to ship the decisive signature on a petition from GOP Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to drive a House vote on the discharge of recordsdata associated to the Epstein case.
Johnson had refused to name the House again into session or swear in Grijalva for weeks amid the federal government shutdown following her particular election win on the finish of September.
The speaker had indicated he would name the House again into session and swear in Grijalva as soon as the Senate handed a invoice to reopen the federal government – which they did earlier this week.
One of the vacant House seats, in Tennessee, leans Republican and will likely be crammed by a particular election subsequent month. The different emptiness is in Texas the place two Democrats have superior to a runoff. That has not been but scheduled however will likely be held early subsequent yr.
At the beginning of the 119th Congress, Johnson was already going through the narrowest House majority in almost 100 years. The tight margin has created a serious problem for congressional Republicans as they search to enact Trump’s legislative priorities, leaving little room for error.
Republicans received 220 House seats in the November elections, while Democrats won 215, the most narrowly divided House majority for the reason that outset of the Great Depression, virtually a century in the past.
At the beginning of the brand new session of Congress, nonetheless, the partisan breakdown stood at 219 to 215, as a result of former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida opted not to return to Congress.
Passing a invoice in the House requires a majority of all members current and voting. The magic quantity is 218 if each member reveals as much as vote and all 435 seats are crammed, however that may change if there are vacancies or absences. A tie vote in the House is a fail.
The final time a minority in the House held 215 or extra seats was after the 1930 elections, when Republicans received 218 seats, Democrats received 216 and the Farmer-Labor Party received one.
The 72nd Congress — which happened in the early years of the Great Depression period — formally began in March 1931, however didn’t really convene to conduct legislative enterprise till months later, in December 1931.
At the official begin of that time period, in March, the House margin had narrowed even further — to 217 seats for Republicans to 216 for Democrats with one seat for the Farmer-Labor occasion and one emptiness on account of the dying of 1 Republican.
In an uncommon flip of occasions, nonetheless, the partisan breakdown changed significantly by the point Congress convened when a sequence of further deaths and ensuing particular elections flipped management of the chamber to Democrats, although the margin remained narrow.
According to House historical records, the sixty fifth Congress had the closest occasion cut up in American historical past, however in that case, the partisan division was so narrow that neither occasion secured an outright majority in the House primarily based on election outcomes, which left Republicans with 215 seats and Democrats with 214. As a end result, a handful of third-party lawmakers performed a decisive function when the House convened to elect a speaker.
Johnson received the speakership in a nail-biter of a vote at the beginning of the 119th Congress.
The election happened with the majority at 219 to 215, which meant that Johnson might solely lose a single Republican vote if each lawmaker voted and all Democrats voted towards him.
The partisan breakdown in the House has shifted a number of instances since then on account of vacancies which have arisen attributable to lawmaker deaths and resignations.
Johnson has at instances had a bit extra respiratory room and congressional Republicans have gone on to go main laws – most notably Trump’s massive tax and spending cuts package in July – however not with out challenges uniting their convention.
GOP leaders misplaced two Republican votes on remaining passage of the tax and spending cuts invoice in the House. Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania voted alongside Democrats towards the measure.
This story and headline have been up to date with further developments.