Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) will depart the House of Representatives in April in yet another blow to an ever-dwindling Republican majority.
Politico reported Gallagher’s forthcoming resignation Friday afternoon, and the congressman later confirmed he planned to exit the lower chamber on April 19.
A statement from Congressman Mike Gallagher. pic.twitter.com/dOBcM8kbNV
— Rep. Gallagher Press Office (@RepGallagher) March 22, 2024
“I’ve worked closely with House Republican leadership on this timeline and look forward to seeing Speaker Mike Johnson appoint a new chair to carry out the important mission of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party,” he wrote in a post on X.
Once Gallagher leaves the chamber, Republicans will have a 217-213 majority over Democrats when all members are present.
This translates into a one-seat majority for Republicans. If two GOP representatives break with Democrats on a vote that is otherwise along party lines, the result would be 215-215.
Republicans currently hold a 219-213 seat majority, but that will dwindle to 218 by the end of Friday when Rep. Ken Buck’s (R-CO) resignation officially takes effect.
The move, which NBC notes will not result in a special election, has implications for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), as Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate against him on Friday morning before the House voted on the $1.2 trillion minibus spending package. As the motion is not privileged, the House does not immediately have to take it up, Breitbart News Capitol Hill Correspondent Bradley Jaye noted.
With the House set to recess for the next two weeks, the motion will await Johnson when members return on April 9, days before Gallagher departs. Greene filed the motion — the same procedure used to take the gavel from former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — after Johnson violated the Hastert Rule to hold a vote on the minibus, per Jaye.
“That rule dictates that a Republican Speaker cannot pass legislation without the support of the majority of the House Republican Conference. Yet only 101 Republicans voted for the bill, with 112 voting in opposition,” he wrote.
Republicans started the 118th Congress with a ten-seat advantage over Democrats (222-212), but a flurry of resignations and the expulsion of indicted former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) following the McCarthy ouster have severely undermined what was already a delicate majority.
After he was removed via Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) motion to vacate, which seven other Republican members as well as Democrats supported, McCarthy decided to leave Congress at the end of December.
According to Politico, Gallagher’s allies “say he was long jaded by the antics of the House following the” removal of McCarthy as Speaker.
McCarthy’s exit marked the beginning of the resignation exodus of House Republicans, as former Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH) left in January to become the president of Youngstown State University.
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) won the special election to replace Santos in New York’s Third Congressional District in February, marking a significant mid-term flip for the left.
“It’s tough, but it’s tough with a five-seat majority, it’s tough with a two-seat majority, one is going to be the same,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told Politico on Friday. “We all have to work together. We’re all going to have to unite if we’re going get some things done.”
