With the Federal Emergency Management Agency reeling from major staffing and funding shortages amid the impact of Hurricane Helene, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) refused on Sunday to commit to reconvening the House before Election Day to aid recovery efforts. In response to a letter from President Biden urging congressional leaders back to replenish federal disaster loan funding, Johnson said during a Fox News Sunday interview that he’d only do so after the election—all but ensuring the funds will run out.
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How does a speaker have any decision power?
On funding issues, a lot. Especially when the funding runs out.
The Speaker leads the House. The House is in charge of the budget. This is it’s main function, the House is supposed to be the voice of the majority but of course it’s been broken due to gerrymandering.
I mean even that isn’t quite right, it’s not meant to be about the dictatorship of the majority, it’s meant to be representatives of the population debating and cooperating in good faith to pass legislation that takes all viewpoints into consideration.
Dictatorship of the minority is quite far removed from functioning government.
And also the Reapportionment Act of 1929, which capped the size of the House at 435. If we went with the original model of one representative for every 30,000 people the House would have 11,000 members.
The speaker of the house is second in line to assume the presidency if both the president and vice president die, and they run the house of representatives. It’s a rather powerful position.