Draft:Speakership of Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson's tenure as the 56th Speaker of the House began with his swearing in on October 25, 2023. Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, became speaker following his election in the fourth round of voting in the October 2023 Speaker of the House election.

Speakership election
After Kevin McCarthy was removed from the position of speaker of the House on October 3, 2023, Representative Matt Gaetz floated Johnson's name as a potential replacement. On October 13, Johnson said that he would not run in the upcoming speaker election to succeed McCarthy and endorsed colleague Jim Jordan; on the same day, NBC News reported that Johnson was considering running if Jordan dropped out.

On October 21, after Steve Scalise and Jordan had made unsuccessful bids for speaker, Johnson declared his candidacy to become the new Republican nominee for speaker but was beaten by Representative Tom Emmer on October 24. Emmer defeated Johnson, 117 votes to 97, on the fifth ballot. Shortly thereafter, Emmer withdrew his candidacy for the speakership. Later on the same day, House Republicans voted to make Johnson their fourth nominee for speaker; he beat write-in candidate Kevin McCarthy and Representative Byron Donalds, 128 votes to 43 and 29, on the third ballot. Johnson's bid was endorsed by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

On October 25, the full House voted, 220–209, to elect Johnson as the 56th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives with every Republican member in attendance voting for him. Johnson was also sworn in as speaker on the same day. He is the first speaker in U.S. history from Louisiana. Johnson had served the shortest tenure of any House member elected speaker, at six years and ten months, since John G. Carlisle in 1883. Delivering his first remarks as speaker, he suggested that his position was ordained by God, saying: "I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear: that God is the one who raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you. All of us".

November 2023
While the October speakership election was ongoing, Hamas invaded Israel which started the Israel–Hamas war. In response to a request from President Biden for aid to Israel, Johnson introduced a $14.5 billion aid package. However, in order to fund the aid, the bill also included cuts from the Internal Revenue Service, angering many Democrats. On November 2, 2023, the bill passed 226 to 196, with twelve Democrats voting in favor of the measure and two Republicans voting against it. The Democrat controlled United State Senate said it would not take up the bill, arguing that the bill was simply a "partisan stunt".

Facing a looming government shutdown on November 17, Johnson proposed a two-step continuing resolution to extend government funding. The bill extended funding for Transportation/Housing and Urban Development, Military Construction/Veterans Affairs, Energy/Water, and Agriculture/Rural Development/Food and Drug Administration until January 19, while the remaining departments had their funding extended until February 2. The two-step approach was introduced with support from the right wing faction of the Republican Party, while the lack of funding cuts was supported by moderates. After the far-right House Freedom Caucus announced they opposed the continuing resolution, Johnson choose to attempt to pass the resolution through a suspension of the rules. This allowed the House to bypass a partisan vote on rules but required the continuing resolution to need a two-thirds majority to pass. The continuing resolution passed 336 to 95, after Democrats announced they would support the resolution on order to avert a government shutdown. In protest of the lack of funding cuts, one day after the passage of the continuing resolution, members of the Freedom Caucus joined Democrats to block a rule vote to fund the Justice Department.

On November 17, 2023, Johnson fulfilled a campaign promise to publicly release thousands of hours of footage from the January 6 United States Capitol attack. In a statement, Johnson said "This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials." Former President Donald Trump endorsed the release of the videos. However, Democrats argued that releasing the videos posed a serious security risk.