Speaker of the House: Do Your Job
Who granted the Speaker of the House such power? The role of the man or woman who holds that title was defined way back when the Founders wrote our Constitution. Article I, Section 2, says, “The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.”
The Speaker of the House is designated to be second in succession to the president; first the vice president, then the Speaker. And, just in case the question arises, the senate pro tempore (the longest-serving senator from the majority party) is third. There is a senate majority leader for the upper house chamber, but the Speaker of the House is considered to be the leader of the majority party. Sometimes, as with President Trump, the president fulfills that designation.
When the First Congress was called to order back in 1789, the men who collectively fought for our freedom were just beginning to show hints of a two-party system. They self-identified as Pro-Administration and Anti-Administration during the first two Congresses. But for the Third Congress, which opened in 1793, the Pro-Administration faction became the Federalists, and the Anti-Administration faction began calling themselves the Democratic Republicans.
The Federalist members who eventually became Democrats believed in a strong central government with strong powers. Supporters included George Washington, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison led the Democratic Republicans, the future Republicans, who pretty much believed that with England out of the way, everyone in the new country should just carry on as they had before, because government had no business interfering.
How the Bills Are Passed
When legislation is written and submitted for consideration by the House of Representatives, it is introduced by the representative, and other representatives may choose to co-sponsor it. It is then assigned to a Committee, which may approve it for a vote of the full House, or it may let it linger and die, or it may recommend it for changes. The Rules Committee, the strongest committee in the House, often determines how a new bill will be processed. Once it’s out of committee, the Speaker puts it on the calendar for a vote.
If it seems a bill will never come out of Committee, the representative who sponsored it can file a discharge petition. That procedure would force it out for a vote, but there would be no Committee report to help others decide how to vote.
And That’s the Problem
Over time, it has become habitual for Speakers of either party to use placement on the House Calendar as a way to coerce other colleagues into cooperation on a similar or some other matter. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), the Senate Majority Leader from 2015 through 2021, took an iron hold over the Senate and refused to allow any legislation submitted by Democrats to come to the floor for a vote. He loved his nickname—the Grim Reaper—because he loved boasting about his graveyard for Democratic legislation. But McConnell was not too pleased with his other nickname, Moscow Mitch, which he got for helping Trump when many of his ventures seemed to favor Putin of Russia somehow.
It was McConnell who ordered the senators to refuse interviews when President Obama nominated Merrick Garland for a Supreme Court nomination. Throughout Trump’s two impeachments, McConnell always backed him.
Mike Johnson, a Republican representing a Louisiana district, took over as Speaker of the House halfway through the 118th Congress, when Kevin McCartney was ousted.
Johnson was re-elected at the start of the 119th Congress.
Now he is copying the practice of Mitch McConnell, denying calendar time for legislative bills brought by Democrats. Normally, the Speaker of the House advocates for and favors the legislation of his own political party. But we have a real problem in the case of Donald Trump.
Trump, as president, has seized power from the Republicans in the House and also in the Senate. He has broken multiple laws based on the Constitution. Neither the Speaker of the House nor the Senate Majority Leader can or will hold the president in check. And Trump does not want Democratic legislation brought to the floor for a vote.
Senate Bills
Two senators collaborated and introduced a bill in early April 2025 called the Trade Review Act of 2025. This bill was coauthored by a Republican, Chuck Grassley, and a Democrat, Maria Cantwell, and it would permit the Senate to review any new tariffs set by the president. This was the result of the tariffs Trump set that sent the stock market reeling over the course of several weeks; we are still in danger of a recession from these actions by Trump. That law would have been vital to returning stability to our economy, but Mike Johnson decided to assign it to the Ways and Means Committee, which deals with taxation. And so, it sits there in Committee.
Now Michael Bennett, a Democrat from Colorado, has introduced legislation called the Stop Trading Assets Benefiting Lawmakers’ Earnings while Governing Exotic and Novel Investments for the United States (STABLE GENIUS) Act. The purpose is well defined on Bennett’s webpage, as the legislation will not be introduced until Congress is back in session. Basically, it prevents Trump from utilizing digital coin and cryptocurrency to make money for himself and his family during his presidency.
Will Johnson Bring it to a Vote?
When people like Johnson and McConnell make personal decisions not to put a piece of legislation onto the calendar for a vote, then the citizens who elected the senators and representatives of their districts or states cannot tell how those elected representatives are doing their jobs. We do not know how they will vote. We cannot predict if they will vote for the things we want and for the policies that will protect us. If our Constitution guarantees us redress when we are unfairly governed, as we are now, then the mechanisms must be in place so that we can judge how things are and then take action.
It does no good for each party to promote an obstruction in Congress that stops legislation of the minority party from being introduced. And when the minority party wins a majority vote, the new leader often refuses to bring the legislation of the other party up to vote—just playing a little tit for tat, right?
That’s a shame when we need and could all support a piece of legislation that would, for example, stop Trump’s irrational tariffs. It would stop the bleeding of retirement accounts. And it would allow us to see just how fair our representatives are when it comes to voting for what their constituents want. Let’s not forget that taxation without representation is tyranny.
We are, right now, in a situation in which Republican representatives voted together, all except one representative, to pass Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill, which cuts Medicaid, food purchasing support, and ACA credits. It even cuts $600 billion from Medicare, which should be illegal because citizens pay for Medicare through payroll deductions in each week of their working lives. That is not money that Congress should be able to access.
Someone should write a law about that.