Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is pushing back against reports that he is considering changing the House rules to alter the threshold required for discharge petitions.
Johnson told Fox News Digital that he will not seek to change the rules around discharge petitions, a method rank-and-file lawmakers can use to circumvent House leadership that Republicans have called a “tool of the minority.” But he told the outlet it is not something he is focusing on.
“Somebody quoted me as saying, ‘I’m going to raise the threshold for discharges’, but that hasn’t even been part of the discussion and not something that I’ve anticipated,” Johnson said. “This discussion has been solely focused on the censure, because it’s so commonly used now.”
This comes after Johnson told reporters on Wednesday that discharge petitions have become “too common” and it is “something I would consider.” But a spokesperson for the speaker told the Washington Examiner he was “misquoted” when asked about reports he would consider raising the threshold despite Johnson’s earlier remarks.
The back and forth comes after the House voted on a bill to release all of the files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, forced by a bipartisan discharge petition from Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY).
Leadership had long discouraged taking this vote, arguing that the House Oversight Committee was working to release the information through its investigation, and the Massie-Khanna bill was not necessary. But, seeing it was inevitable after four Republicans and 214 Democrats signed the petition, leadership conceded it would not whip against it and encouraged the GOP lawmakers to vote their conscience.
A discharge petition requires 218 signatures to force a vote on a bill. Due to the small margins in the House, a petition guarantees that it will need bipartisan support in order to come to the floor.
After articles dropped stating that Johnson said he would consider changing the petition rules, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) came out in staunch opposition.
“The ONLY way we may be able to BAN insider trading is by using a discharge petition,” Luna said in a post to X. “Any move to take this away as a tool FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE will be viewed as a hostile ACT by the SWAMP and I WILL OPPOSE AT ALL COSTS. I HOPE this is not what the speaker is really saying.”
Luna led a discharge petition earlier this year to try to force a vote on a bill to change the House rules to allow for proxy voting for new parents. But, after a handful of conservatives threatened to hold up the floor if Johnson allowed that bill to come to the floor, Luna and Johnson struck a deal for “vote pairing.”
Other discharge petitions, including the one mentioned by Luna banning members of Congress from stock trading, are coming down the pipeline.
Democrats have secured enough signatures to force a vote on a bill from Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) to restore union rights for thousands of federal workers. Reps. Nick LaLota (R-NY), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Don Bacon (R-NE), and Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) joined Fitzpatrick and Democrats in signing the petition, with the New Yorkers’ signatures helping reach the 218 threshold.
Fitzpatrick is also moving forward with a discharge petition to vote on Russia sanctions as President Donald Trump seeks a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine that would cede vast portions of Ukraine to Russia. He said a post on Friday that he and allies “officially notified both the Clerk of the House and House leadership of our discharge petition to force a vote on crushing Russian sanctions immediately upon our return” from the Thanksgiving recess.
On the Democratic side, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has a discharge petition that would extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies for three years. But it is unlikely to reach 218 signatures, as Republicans largely want to see some, if not major, reform to the tax credits.
Johnson said he is in favor of making it harder for censure resolutions to be brought forward against lawmakers, after the House faced four this week alone. That makes six this year, after the House voted to censure Rep. Al Green (D-TX) and failed to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
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Reps. Don Beyer (D-VA) and Don Bacon (R-NE) are circulating a resolution to raise the threshold to 60% of the voting body instead of a simple majority. Strategists, lawmakers, and longtime Capitol Hill staffers told the Washington Examiner the use of the censure has gotten “absurd” and out of control.
“There is a large groundswell of bottom-up consternation about that,” Johnson told Fox News Digital. “The members are so frustrated by what this has become — and I mean across the Republican conference, and I think on the Democrat side as well. I’ve told everybody I’m open to those discussions, because I’m more frustrated than anyone about how this is devolved. I think we’ve got to protect the institution.”