Rep. Hal Rogers’s (R-KY) hospitalization will shave a vote off of Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) already razor-thin majority, just as the nascent speaker navigates blowback over a deal he struck on federal spending.
Republican leadership told members on a Sunday conference call that Rogers, the dean of the House, will remain in the hospital this week as he recovers from a Wednesday car crash, according to a source familiar.
He is in “good condition,” Rogers’s office said on Friday, but the crash means Johnson will have the barest of majorities, just 218 votes. Johnson is already dealing with conservative anger over a spending agreement he reached with Democrats that only marginally cuts federal spending. Rogers’s absence represents yet another headache for the speaker.
His vote is not needed for a continuing resolution the House will take up later this week. That legislation, which would extend government funding into March, is expected to receive the support of most Democrats.
But it could affect Johnson’s calculus as House Republicans prepare to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena last month. The president’s son is newly cooperative, meaning the vote could be canceled — the two sides are negotiating the terms of a possible deposition — but for now, it is on the House schedule for Thursday.
Even at full attendance, Republicans held just a five-seat House majority. But that number has shrunk with the resignation of ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and George Santos’s expulsion. Complicating matters further, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) will be gone for January as he undergoes cancer treatment.
Those margins will matter as the House prepares to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the crisis at the southern border, perhaps as soon as this month. The lower chamber is also laying the groundwork for the possible impeachment of President Joe Biden on charges of corruption.
Republicans uniformly voted to open an impeachment inquiry into Biden last month, but it took weeks to get centrists on board. Those same members say Republicans do not yet have the evidence to hold an actual impeachment vote.
Rogers, the longest continuously serving member of the House, signaled he is antsy to get back to Washington following the crash, which occurred after lawmakers finished voting for the day. He is “avidly” following doctor’s orders, Rogers said in a statement, and has instructed staff to coordinate with leadership on “upcoming fiscal deadlines.”
Rogers, 86, is one of the top Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee.
Unfortunately for Johnson, the House math is going to get more difficult regardless of his return. Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH) will be retiring on Jan. 21, while Republicans could lose Santos’s seat for good in a Feb. 13 special election.
It’s not all bad news for Republicans. Rep. Brian Higgins, a Democrat, will be stepping down on Feb. 2. But the vacancies serve to illustrate just how tenuous House Republicans’ majority is.
Hard-line Republicans have exploited the tight margins to steer the House to the right, a dynamic that contributed to the eventual ouster of McCarthy.
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Johnson so far has shown a willingness to buck those conservatives, striking a spending deal with Senate Democrats that included just $16 billion in additional spending cuts for this fiscal year.
But he is beholden to the same math that dogged McCarthy. Hard-liners tanked a procedural vote earlier this month in protest of the deal.
Reese Gorman contributed to this story.