LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A new Congress is to be sworn in today. And the first order of business in the House is to elect a speaker.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Republicans have an even narrower majority than in the last Congress, which means they have to be close to unanimous to choose a leader. Speaker Mike Johnson has the endorsement of President-elect Trump and also faces a challenge from some Republican holdouts.
FADEL: Joining us now is NPR's congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales. Hi, Claudia.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Hey, Leila.
FADEL: All right, so Mike Johnson was elected speaker after his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from the job during a chaotic time and several other candidates lost bids to replace him. What is Johnson facing this time around?
GRISALES: Well, potentially more chaos. House Republicans are taking control of the lower chamber for this second Congress in a row. And as we saw, the last couple of years brought us some good clues on how today could play out. Now, as you mentioned, Job 1 for the House today is to elect a new speaker, and there will virtually be no House business until that gets done. No new members sworn in, no legislative business. And we already heard from House Republicans at the end of last year who said they were not so sure they would reelect Johnson to the speakership, even as he recently earned Trump's endorsement. And as you mentioned, it's key, but it may not be enough.
FADEL: But why not? I mean, this is an incoming Republican White House with Trump at the helm. And Johnson held the position as speaker for the last 14 months.
GRISALES: Well, first of all, Johnson is coming into this new House with even tighter margins than we saw in the last couple of years. When former House speaker Kevin McCarthy, for example, ran for his position. He could only lose, two years ago, a handful of Republicans to get that gavel in the 2023 election. And he still had to go 15 rounds of ballots, days of intraparty fighting on the floor, before he won that gavel.
FADEL: Walk us through that process of how the House elects a new speaker. What should we be watching for?
GRISALES: Well, Johnson will need a simple majority of a 435-member House, so 218 votes. And Republicans just have 219 members, so not a lot of breathing room at all, particularly since Democrats are not expected to help Johnson or any other Republican get over the line. So we already know of one GOP member who says he will vote no on Johnson, and it's possible others could follow.
FADEL: Who are those possible nos?
GRISALES: Well, we know Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie has been pretty vocal. He will vote against Johnson, so that could open the floodgates for other House Republicans who want to vote no on Johnson as well. Some Republicans will use this time for attention in the media, or other potential spoilers may look at this as an opportunity to make a favorable deal with Johnson before they can get flipped to a yes. So they will hold a lot of leverage in this moment.
FADEL: So what, if anything, does this moment tell us about the new Congress?
GRISALES: Well, it's clearly a test for this new membership, especially House Republicans and whether they will face the same dysfunction, the same intraparty fighting that dominated the last Congress. And it's also a test of the influence Trump will exert over these members. In his endorsement of Johnson, he noted that this should get done quickly so Republicans can also quickly get to work on a very long to-do list.
FADEL: NPR's Claudia Grisales. Thank you, Claudia.
GRISALES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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