Various Republican factions had reached a deal on the rule change in November. The threshold for a vote on the motion had previously been one.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) exploited the low threshold to oust then-House Speaker McCarthy, a first in US history.
“It’s a numbers game. We have the smallest margin in U.S. history,” Johnson told “FOX & Friends” Thursday. “We will have a margin of probably two votes tomorrow during that. So we can only afford to lose one or two.”
President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed Johnson for speaker and the Louisianian trekked down to Mar-a-Lago Thursday to map out a game plan with the Republican leader.
That means a minimum of nine Republicans will have to back an effort to topple their speaker in order to trigger a vote. Given the GOP’s slim control in the House, if a rep meets that threshold, the speaker will be successfully ousted unless Democrats intervene.
In addition to those adjustments, the 36-page rules package also tees up votes on multiple Republican-backed upcoming pieces of legislation, including a border security bill and a measure demanding proof of citizenship to vote in elections, which already passed the House last year but wasn’t taken up in the Senate.
Still, Trump’s stamp of approval seemingly did little to budge the undecideds — at least based on their public statements. Republicans who have soured on Johnson have groused over his stewardship when Democrats controlled the Senate and White House.
Republicans are also planning to rename the “House Committee on Oversight and Accountability” as “the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform;” and the “Office of Congressional Ethics” as the “Office of Congressional Conduct.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has also ruled out throwing Johnson a lifeline again.
McCarthy waited through a record 15 rounds of votes before nabbing the speaker’s gavel at the start of the 118th Congress — and in a concession to lead his conference, changed the rules on the number of members required to move to a motion to vacate.