As prescribed by the 29th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the 119th Congress convened today. Ordinarily a routine and largely ceremonial occasion to which members’ families are also invited, the election of a Speaker is the first and fundamental task of the newly elected House of Representatives. What made it less routine and ceremonial was the prospect that, as with the previous 118th Congress, the election of the Speaker (in this case, the re-election of Mike Johnson) was not an automatically foregone conclusion. After seeming to lose three Republican votes, Speaker Johnson managed to recover two of them thanks to Donald Trump’s direct support. Thanks to those two vote switches, Johnson got himself re-elected on the first ballot (just barely 218-215). So a repeat of the previous Congress’s opening-day circus was avoided.
So Congress can now organize itself for business. Of course, the re-elected Speaker and his Republican Caucus have the slimmest of majorities, which will et even slimmer when some Republican Representatives leave Congress to take jobs in the Trump Administration. So it remains to be seen how much actual governing will effectively take place. Donald Trump’s vision of the presidency appears highly personal and autocratic. But, whether he likes it or not, he will need Congress to implement his program, such as it is, whatever it is. Whether this Congress will be able to pass any kind of coherent Trump program remains now to be seen. It is more than obvious that the House Republicans are anything but a unified, functional force.
The next pressing task for Congress comes, of course, on Monday, January 6, when in accordance with the Constitution, The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.
Unlike last time, January 6 will pass peacefully this year. Afterwards, however, Congress will have to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling, redo Trump’s tax cuts, and do all sorts of other things, which these Republicans in this Congress will likely find it hard to do.
