‘Messy’ democracy: Speaker Johnson has same difficulties as McCarthy but more loyal allies

It’s been a rough seven weeks for House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Republicans grumbled last week at Mr. Johnson’s navigation of divisions over renewing a crucial government spy power in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The speaker ultimately yanked two competing bills from the House floor.

Some lawmakers fear the Louisiana Republican is receiving “bad counsel” from his staff on proceeding with other key legislation, including a major defense policy bill that split the conference but ultimately passed.

Despite Mr. Johnson’s inexperience and initial stumbles as speaker, Republicans are in no hurry to replace him. Mr. Johnson, 51, was elected speaker on Oct. 25 after a rogue group of conservatives voted with all Democrats to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican.

Despite his years in top leadership posts, Mr. McCarthy struggled with the same difficulties of overseeing a fractured, tiny majority. The Republican conference realizes that Mr. Johnson, a hard-right conservative elected to the House just seven years ago, can’t magically unite the conference any better than his predecessor. So, they reason, why throw him out?

“He understands he’s been dealt an incredibly difficult hand of cards, and sometimes we’re going to face legislative problems that simply are not solvable by the end of the week,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson, South Dakota Republican.

The speaker has been unable to unite Republicans around individual government spending bills he pledged to pass, but he gaveled to passage a resolution opening an impeachment inquiry into President Biden and pushed through one spending bill and some policy legislation, including the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act and a bill aimed at lowering health care costs.

Although he failed to pass all 12 government spending bills, Mr. Johnson claims credit for extending government funding in two spending packages that expire early next year.

It stops “the absurd holiday-season omnibus tradition of massive, loaded-up spending bills introduced right before the Christmas recess,” he said.

Punting the measures adds to a cascade of looming deadlines next year.

In addition to the temporary spending bills that expire in January and February, the House must grapple with renewing the FISA legislation, which is extended until April 19 in the defense policy bill, and funding authority for the Federal Aviation Administration that expires on March 8.

Republicans worry that Mr. Johnson’s tactic of short-term extensions reflects an indecisiveness and difficulty leading the conference that will only worsen next year.

“The speaker has to be the quarterback. So you’ve got to act like a quarterback and get the team on board and call the play. I know he’s figuring it out, and I hope for all of our sakes and for the majority’s sake he’ll figure it out quickly,” Rep. Jim Banks, Indiana Republican, told The Washington Times.

Mr. Johnson withdrew the two FISA bills after the Republican conference balked at his plan to put them on the floor as competing measures. The bills would overhaul the legislation that allows spying on foreigners abroad but sometimes scoops up Americans’ communications, a power enumerated in FISA’s Section 702.

Republicans fumed when Mr. Johnson refused to choose between the two bills and instead pitched a plan to debate them on the House floor.

Supporters of the rewrite of Section 702 authored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said Mr. Johnson erred by overstepping. Mr. Jordan has spearheaded reforms to the surveillance program to increase transparency and protect civil liberties.

Mr. Jordan’s bill had strong bipartisan support, but Mr. Johnson gave a measure authored by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence equal weight in a voting duel.

House Republicans who backed the effort to more forcefully rein in the FBI’s and spy agencies’ authority to go after Americans said blocking Mr. Jordan from a major role in the FISA overhaul was misguided.

“I hope that he learns from this misstep and goes back to the drawing board,” Mr. Banks said.

The speaker doesn’t view his bid to put both FISA bills on the floor as a mistake.

“We have this very important matter to determine and resolve, and you have a lot of different opinions where that is,” Mr. Johnson said.

Other Republicans defended Mr. Johnson’s egalitarian leadership style.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican who led the effort to remove Mr. McCarthy, praised the speaker for not being the type of leader who will “big-foot decisions.”

Still, some conference members say Mr. Johnson has been undermined by “poor counsel” from his inner circle.

“I still believe in his heart that he begins at the same place that I begin my day on,” said Rep. Matthew Rosendale, Montana Republican. “After that, he gets undermined by counsel throughout the day which gets him to make some bad decisions.”

In his final news conference of the year, Mr. Johnson summed up his leadership style.

“Democracy is messy, but we have to get it right,” Mr. Johnson said. “We’re the greatest deliberative body in the world, and we’ll do our job and do it well. Sometimes, it takes more time than we’d like, but we have to get it right.”