The government is shut down, and so, apparently, is the House of Representatives. Speaker Mike Johnson has kept the House on an indefinite hiatus over the past month. This decision has halted the work of passing bills and conducting oversight, while also blocking the swearing-in of a new Democratic representative.
Johnson’s move has “diminished the role of Congress and shrunken the speakership” at a moment when President Donald Trump is claiming more power for himself, according to Annie Karni of *The New York Times*. Johnson has “chosen to make himself subservient to Mr. Trump” instead of acting as a “governing partner,” as speakers before him have been. The president has taken notice, reportedly telling associates, “I’m the speaker and the president.”
This dynamic has created a “strange” situation in which Johnson seems to have used his “considerable power” to render the House irrelevant.
### Shifting the Balance of Power
Johnson is “ostensibly” making the point that the House has “done its job and voted to fund the government,” noted Leigh Ann Caldwell at *Puck*. After all, it is Senate Democrats who are blocking the passage of a continuing resolution to end the government shutdown.
However, Johnson’s decision is also “inadvertently reducing the legislature’s own authority” while Trump “seizes de facto spending and taxation powers” that constitutionally belong to Congress. Johnson’s deference to the president is shifting the balance of power in a way not seen since the Nixon administration.
The House was “central” to the Founders’ vision of democracy, *The Philadelphia Inquirer*’s Will Bunch explained. Small districts and biennial elections were intended to “closely bond its members to the people” and serve as an “antidote to Western civilization’s monarchy problem.” Now, the “absence of a functional Congress” is allowing Trump to “run the country by fiat.”
While Johnson may lead the House, he is ceding “all of the job’s actual power to the president.”
### GOP Support and Emerging Divisions
House Republicans largely agree with Johnson’s tactics, according to NOTUS. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) questioned, “What would we be doing?” He emphasized that the battle over the shutdown is being waged in the Senate, and most House members believe they should return only “when we’ve got something to vote on.” At the moment, he said, “we really don’t.”
However, “cracks are growing” within the GOP caucus, reported *Axios*. Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Dan Crenshaw of Texas, and others have “raised concerns about being on recess during the shutdown.”
### Deepening Suspicions
It is difficult for Johnson to argue that he is “serious about swiftly reopening the government” when he refuses to call the House into session, noted James Downie at MSNBC.
Another consequence of the House’s hiatus has been the delay in swearing in Democratic Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva of Arizona. Grijalva would be the 218th signature on a House discharge petition aimed at forcing the release of government files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The delay in swearing in Grijalva “only deepens suspicions that the White House is hiding something” in the Epstein case.
https://theweek.com/politics/mike-johnson-speaker-house-shutdown
