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Legislative Process 101 - Motion to Vacate

What is a motion to vacate? 

A motion to vacate is the procedure used to remove the Speaker of the House. It’s a rarely used procedural tool that allows any Member of Congress to introduce a resolution, declaring the speakership to be vacant. 

Once a member goes to the House floor to announce their intent to offer the resolution, the Speaker is required to put the resolution on the legislative schedule within two legislative days – forcing a floor vote on the motion to vacate. 

Then, it just needs a simple majority to pass. If all Members are present and voting, a simple majority is 218 votes, but that number can shift due to vacancies or absences. 

Wasn’t there a recent rule change on motions to vacate? 

There have been a couple of changes in the last few years. In 2019, the House, led by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, changed the rule so that instead of any single member being able to bring a motion to vacate to the floor, it needed the support of a majority of one party in order to be brought to the floor for a vote. 

But in his tumultuous and repeated bid for the speakership earlier this year, Kevin McCarthy caved to extreme MAGA Republican demands and agreed to restore the original rule. This set the stage for any one MAGA member of the House to be able to bring a motion to vacate to the floor at any time, creating a perpetual threat to McCarthy’s speakership. Famously, Kevin McCarthy is no longer Speaker of the House, after he became the first speaker in history to be ousted by a successful motion to vacate was brought by Rep. Matt Gaetz and other MAGA extremists on McCarthy’s right flank. 

Speaker Mike Johnson received a bit of a honeymoon period following his election as speaker, but continues to face the persistent threat of a motion to vacate as the House Freedom Caucus and others express their dissatisfaction. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene even filed a motion to vacate Johnson on March 22, 2024, which she could bring to the floor and force a vote within the two legislative day limit. 

What happens next? 

Once a motion to vacate is introduced, the Speaker is required to submit a confidential list to the House Clerk, naming the people who – in the case of a vacancy – should act as interim Speaker until a new Speaker is elected. 

What happens if a motion to vacate succeeds?

Kevin McCarthy’s ouster became the first time in US history that a Speaker of the House was removed through successful passage of a motion to vacate. 

Now, if Speaker Johnson is removed from his position as Speaker, the first person on the list he provided to the House Clerk will become the interim Speaker. The interim Speaker has limited authority and can only preside over the election of a new Speaker, which will require the House to vote as many times as necessary for someone to get to either 218 votes, or support from the majority of those who are present and voting. The interim Speaker is not able to bring up legislation for votes.

Where do Democrats fit into all of this?

The motion to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House is the result of ongoing Republican in-fighting over whether McCarthy has ceded enough of his authority to the most extreme members of the caucus. Democrats were exactly right when they hung together and voted for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to be Speaker, rather than bailing out McCarthy - which would have only preserved a House Majority run by the most extreme members of the Republican party. 

Mike Johnson might, miraculously, be less effective than Kevin McCarthy, but he’s certainly not any more moderate. In fact he’s a Trump devotee and far right conservative - and even that might not be enough for Marjorie Taylor Greene and other extremists who continue to call the shots.   

If there is another motion to vacate a Republican speaker, it’s not up to Democrats to swoop in and save him. The American people deserve a House of Representatives that’s functional and doesn’t careen from crisis to crisis. Simply saving Mike Johnson’s job doesn’t solve the structural rot at the heart of the GOP caucus. Without a structural solution that disempowers the MAGA extremists from running the show, it’s just replacing one MAGA puppet with another - which isn’t something worthy of Democratic support.