A year ago Kevin McCarthy was booted as House speaker. Mike Johnson is trying to avoid that fate

WASHINGTON (AP) — One year since Kevin McCarthy was booted from the House speaker’s office after Congress voted in a bipartisan way to prevent a federal government shutdown, the new House Speaker Mike Johnson finds himself courting, but so far avoiding, a similar political fate.

Johnson is leading the House this week to vote on legislation to fund the government and ensure no interruption in federal services, but he’s similarly abandoning demands from his own hard-right Republican colleagues and relying on Democratic votes and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries to push the package to bipartisan approval.

While Johnson appears to be in no imminent threat of being ousted — the way McCarthy lost his position in a historic vote last fall when eight hardline Republicans engineered a motion to vacate the speaker — the new leader’s ability to hold on to the speaker’s gavel for the long term is not at all certain.

“It’s a tough job,” said McCarthy, who is now retired from Congress and watching from the sidelines.

The government funding vote provides a notable capstone to what has been an extraordinary and tumultuous session of Congress with the House Republican majority that swept to power in January 2023, as lawmakers now prepare to face voters.

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