{"id":1854,"date":"2026-08-05T22:14:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T22:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1854"},"modified":"2026-08-05T22:14:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T22:14:37","slug":"mike-johnson-would-prefer-not-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1854","title":{"rendered":"Mike Johnson Would Prefer Not To"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is an edition of The<\/i> Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. <\/i>Sign up for it here.<\/i><\/small><\/p>\n

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This morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson finally broke his silence on the scandal engulfing Representative Max Miller of Ohio. Well, sort of\u2014Johnson didn\u2019t have much to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to Max about this in the last few days. Of course, I will,\u201d he told Politico<\/i>. Johnson said that Miller, a fellow Republican, was taking the allegations seriously (despite evidence to the contrary) and that a House Ethics Committee process should \u201cplay out.\u201d (Miller requested the investigation this week, an apparent stalling tactic.) Johnson added, \u201cThere\u2019s all sorts of domestic events going on with 435 members of Congress all the time. It\u2019s not my business to get engaged in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This raises the question of what Johnson does think the speaker\u2019s business is. One might imagine that the Miller situation would concern Johnson for several reasons. Johnson positions himself as a staunch social conservative and defender of morality; Miller has been accused of domestic abuse against his ex-wife and toddler daughter, and of illegal drug use. (Miller has denied the abuse allegations and said that although he has used illegal drugs in the past, he no longer does.) For his caucus, it\u2019s a big distraction from any midterm messaging that the Republican Party might wish to do in the last 100 days before elections. The scandal also puts another GOP seat in play in November; Miller said on CNN last night that Donald Trump had told him that it would be a \u201ctough\u201d race to win. If Miller drops out by Monday afternoon, Republicans in Ohio can replace him on the ballot, but it\u2019s not clear how quickly the Ethics Committee process will move.<\/p>\n

If Johnson doesn\u2019t think that his job includes protecting the moral reputation of the House, his small and endangered House majority, or the prospects of the Republican Party more broadly, he must have some other idea about his role. What that might be is mysterious.<\/p>\n

Passing legislation would seem like an obvious answer, but the 119th Congress has been one of the least productive in history. Legislators have succeeded in enacting just 104 laws since January 2025. That\u2019s the lowest number by far since at least 1947\u2014only the 274 laws passed last Congress even come close. This is especially remarkable because Republicans hold control over both chambers. Legislative leaders have also yielded some of their power over budgets, one of their most basic duties, to the White House. Even worse, 2025 saw the longest complete shutdown of the federal government in history, as legislators failed to fund the government for 43 days.<\/p>\n

Some of the blame for this unproductivity belongs to the Senate, where the GOP edge is narrow and where rules mean that a Democratic minority can more easily block legislation. But senators are at least filling their time with other official duties, such as confirming presidential appointments, that the House doesn\u2019t have. Another basic congressional duty is oversight of the executive branch, but the House has done little to investigate or shed light on what the administration is doing, much less hold it to account. In May, Johnson called a recess rather than hold a vote condemning Trump\u2019s war in Iran, after it became clear that the nonbinding measure would pass. (The House has since passed a similar resolution.)<\/p>\n

Johnson isn\u2019t setting some sort of broader agenda for the legislature either. That, too, has been left to Trump, who seems to have been interested in only two bills: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed last year, and the SAVE America Act, currently and perhaps permanently bottled up in the Senate. Johnson\u2019s deference to Trump has reportedly led the president to joke in private that he has \u201ctwo jobs: being president and being speaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s rather demeaning for Johnson, but given how Trump dominates the House, one might expect that Johnson would pay close attention to what the president says and does. Yet Johnson has a consistent pattern of pleading ignorance when asked about controversial statements or actions by Trump or his administration. In a characteristic example, Johnson dodged a question in October about cuts to funding for special education: \u201cI\u2019ve been so busy on this; I\u2019ve not had a chance to dig into the details.\u201d Busy on what<\/i>, precisely?<\/p>\n

In fairness to Johnson, he\u2019s working in a difficult environment with just a seven-seat majority, a rebellious right flank, and a mercurial president. But he does have some power when he wants to use it\u2014as became apparent this week. On Monday, the House Ethics Committee that Representative Chuck Edwards of North Carolina, a Republican, had \u201cengaged in persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers\u201d and had likely \u201cviolated House rules related to sexual harassment and hostile workplaces.\u201d (Edwards denied that any of his conduct had been intended as a sexual or romantic advance.) Yesterday, CNN reported that House leaders were pressuring Edwards to drop his reelection bid. Early this morning, Edwards did just that.<\/p>\n

By attempting to remain distant from the Miller scandal, Johnson is allowing Miller to claim, as he did in an interview last night, that \u201cSpeaker Mike Johnson, everyone else\u2014they\u2019re standing behind me.\u201d Johnson\u2019s reluctance to become involved in a messy, lurid story like this one is understandable, but it\u2019s also one of the burdens that falls on leaders. By declining to bear it, Johnson may help ensure that he doesn\u2019t have to worry about the duties of the speaker when the new Congress opens next January.<\/p>\n

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