Mike Johnson Concocts Elaborate Justification in Attempt to Explain Away Hastert Rule Violations

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) concocted multiple justifications in an attempt to explain away his Hastert Rule violations in passing multiple bills without receiving a majority of Republican support.

Conservatives have accused Johnson of violating the Hastert Rule, a rule set by former Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert which mandates that the Speaker only bring a bill to the floor “if a majority of the majority” supports the bill.

Johnson passed an enormous $1.2 trillion government funding plan in March despite the objections of a majority of House Republicans.

The Speaker also passed a $60 billion Ukraine aid bill, which was passed without a majority of Republican support.

The Louisiana leader of the House also passed legislation under “suspension of the rules,” meaning that the bill did not first go through the House Rules Committee. The House Rules Committee has three conservatives, Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX), Ralph Norman (R-SC), and Thomas Massie (R-KY), who have said that Johnson is bypassing conservatives.

“I get the sense that leadership is trying to bypass conservatives and instead work with Democrats to get things passed,” Norman said in February.

Johnson passed a $79 billion tax bill, the $886 billion national defense policy bill, and two spending bills under suspension of the rules to circumvent conservatives and “regular order.”

Even some Democrats have winced over Johnson’s use of suspension.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said, “I think it’s terrible. I don’t think it is a good thing going forward.”

“In attempting to cater to the far right, they have given power to Democrats. I take no particular delight in that,” she added.

To explain how, in his view, he never violated the Hastert Rule, Johnson said:

On the Hastert Rule, as it’s called, there are a couple of instances where there wasn’t the majority of Republicans [voting for a bill on the floor]. One was in the appropriations process. But as I explained to the two of them in my office, we did have a whip count that did have a majority of Republicans. Eight people flipped at the last minute. And that’s not something the speaker can control. We didn’t break the rule. I’ve been following the Hastert Rule since the day I got the gavel.

The Ukraine vote got slightly fewer Republicans that voted for it, but that vote wasn’t whipped. And so the Hastert Rule has never been violated so long as I’ve been involved. And I have no intention of doing so. So agreeing to that wasn’t a negotiation. I just affirmed, yeah, I’m already committed to that.

Johnson appears to claim that he never violated the Hastert Rule if a bill was whipped, or if Republicans flipped their vote at the last minute.

However, as the Congressional Institute describes the Hastert Rule, there is no condition about a bill being whipped.

The unwritten rule simply says “that the Speaker will only bring a bill to the floor if the majority of the majority supports it.”