Over the last five months, the House has lived up to expectations. It’s been loud, rambunctious, heated, deeply divided and hyper-partisan. For lovers of the People’s House, it’s at once exhausting and thrilling to watch.
The House Republican majority left on a high note last week when Speaker Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump orchestrated the passage of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” Act over the opposition of just two GOP lawmakers. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries delivered a 37-minute speech bashing the bill very early on the morning of May 22.
For Johnson and Jeffries, the next phase of the 119th Congress gets even more interesting. And that’s where we pick up today in our House Leader Look.
Mike Johnson. Johnson had an unmistakable pep in his step last week when he left Washington. The speaker is preoccupied with the idea that the media, Democrats and even some Republican colleagues underestimate his legislative abilities. But as promised, Johnson pushed the reconciliation bill through the House by Memorial Day.
However, Johnson’s work on reconciliation is far from done. This next stage may be just as difficult. When the House returns Tuesday, the chamber has just 13 days in session until Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised to have a reconciliation package on Trump’s desk.
The Senate will have to move extremely quickly under this timeline. And Johnson will have to work overtime to defend the House’s equities in this package – not only from Senate Republicans, but also from Trump, who has expressed openness to changing the House product.
The speaker will seek to protect House-crafted provisions on everything from SALT to the rapid rollback of IRA clean-energy tax credits to steep Medicaid spending cuts. Some GOP senators will want more, some won’t be comfortable going this far.
But every change the Senate makes will impact Johnson’s vote count when the reconciliation bill comes back to the House. At some point during the next few weeks, Johnson will almost certainly be forced to plead with skittish House Republicans to pass a revised reconciliation package with the debt-limit deadline looming around the corner in mid-July.
Look at some of the incoming Johnson is already getting. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said the HFC “held our nose” to vote for the bill. “The House-passed ‘BBB’ bill must get better in the Senate & House return,” Roy said.
There are three other dynamics to keep an eye on:
– The White House is expected to send up a package of DOGE-generated cuts to the Hill for a vote. Johnson is under no statutory obligation to bring this rescission proposal to the floor. But he’ll be under heavy internal pressure to do so.
Congress must act within 45 days once it receives the presidential message on the long-awaited rescissions package or the funding will be spent as directed. There’s no Senate filibuster, and it doesn’t have to go through any committees in either chamber.
The proposal is expected to total at least $9 billion (funding that’s already being withheld, which is questionable legally, but OK). The cuts will mainly focus on the already shuttered USAID, but there will also be proposed cuts to NPR and PBS.
– FY2026 spending bills start getting marked up next week. Trump is pushing huge cuts in non-defense spending while adding to the Pentagon budget. This will be a big challenge for Johnson and GOP appropriators.
– Johnson will get new questions about whether he’s going to bring up the $1 billion D.C. budget fix for a vote. D.C. officials and Mayor Muriel Bowser have said it’s essential. House GOP appropriators doubt it. It’s another headache for the speaker.
Hakeem Jeffries. The House minority leader is openly — and repeatedly — saying Democrats will win the majority in November 2026.
For the ever-cautious Jeffries (we may trademark that phrase) to lean that far into this prediction is a barometer of the mood in the current House Democratic Caucus. Historically, Democrats should win. If money and motivation are the yardsticks, they will win.
Yet even more importantly, Jeffries has to say they’re going to win. The Democratic base — still outraged over Trump’s victory — is demanding that their leaders stop him somehow, despite complete GOP control of Washington.
Jeffries is doing the little he can on that front by promising that Democrats will do so – but in January 2027. It ain’t much, but it’s something. Now Jeffries must deliver on the promise.
Jeffries rallied Democrats against the GOP reconciliation package, including having an unprecedented 100 members testify before the Rules Committee in opposition. It didn’t change the final outcome, although Jeffries issued this warning before the May 22 vote: “This day may very well turn out to be the day that House Republicans lost control of the United States House of Representatives.”
Jeffries continues to step up his press outreach, adding a fly-in day press conference — like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — among numerous other media availabilities. The DCCC continues to outraise the NRCC, another plus for Jeffries.
