First consider the uneasy re-election of Mike Johnson as House Speaker. Mr Johnson won near-unanimous support from his party on the first ballot, an improvement over the 15 rounds of voting it took for his Republican predecessor two years ago.

Social media users responded with a stark reminder after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) positively talked up Tuesday about the speed and relative ease with which Congress had a day earlier certified President-elect Donald Trump ’s 2024 election victory over Democratic rival Kamala Harris.

Ever since Republicans took back control of the U.S. House in 2022, their biggest concern has been the unruly hard-right members of the House Freedom Caucus, who have exploited narrow margins of control to keep pressure on their colleagues to obey their wishes.

Republican Mike Johnson won the barest of victories on Friday, Jan. 3, when 218 U.S. House representatives voted to re-up his term as speaker to start the 119th Congress. While Johnson was officially reelected on the first ballot,

Speaker Mike Johnson quietly gave Rep. Nancy Mace a victory in her quest to ban transgender women from using the ladies' bathrooms on Capitol Hill. In the Congressional Record published on Jan. 3, Johnson officially implemented a policy stating that “all single-sex facilities—such as restrooms,

Johnson could face difficulty in passing President-elect Donald Trump's agenda, according to political analysts.

The policy was left out of last week’s proposed package but Rep. Johnson quietly included the ban in the final rules.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told Axios that Republicans are discussing work requirements as part of a potential Medicaid overhaul.

Johnson, of Louisiana, has been working diligently to prevent defeat, spending New Year’s Day at Mar-a-Lago as he positions himself alongside Trump. The speaker often portrays himself as the “quarterback” who will be executing the political plays called by the “coach,” the president-elect.

Plus: Report from New Orleans in the days since the terror attack on Bourbon Street, and the Surgeon General's new advisory on alcohol and cancer.

The debt limit fight arose in mid-December after President-elect Donald Trump demanded at the eleventh hour that Republicans include it in the government spending deal.