It was Thursday morning and Mike Johnson had a problem — again.
An increasingly familiar scene was playing out on the House floor, as a handful of holdouts threatened to tank a procedural vote that once would have held little drama. What was supposed to be a 5-minute vote stretched into 20 minutes, then 25.
Working their way around the chamber, the speaker and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., tried to rein in their conference. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., threw up his hands and left, not voting. Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, later said he agreed to vote “yes” only after Johnson promised him a meeting on ethanol with a Trump Cabinet member.
