Johnson says he's 'open' to changing House censure rules after week of political drama

By Fox News · Fox News

EXCLUSIVE: Speaker Mike Johnson , R-La., is signaling openness to making it harder for House lawmakers to punish each other via a censure resolution. The congressional leader sat down for an interview with Fox News Digital on Friday, the first week the House returned since the beginning of the 43-day government shutdown began on Oct. 1. But the five-day legislative week was marked by volatile politics, with three separate lawmakers forcing votes on rebuking one of their colleagues — out of five total threats to do so. "There is a large groundswell of bottom up consternation about that. The members are so frustrated by what this has become — and I mean across the Republican conference, and I think on the Democrat side as well," Johnson said. "I've told everybody I'm open to those discussions, because I'm more frustrated than anyone about how this is devolved. I think we've got to protect the institution." MIKE JOHNSON REVEALS HOW HE'LL VOTE ON EPSTEIN FILES BILL LED BY TRUMP CRITIC THOMAS MASSIE Johnson said those talks have focused specifically on raising the threshold it takes to push a censure. Currently, any one lawmaker can introduce a censure resolution against another. Both Republicans and Democrats have also wielded a mechanism this week known as a "privileged resolution" to force an immediate vote on rebuking a colleague. Johnson said there's "a lot of ideas" being floated on changing the system. "I've had members from across the conference bringing me their thoughts and ideas on that, and we'll be going through that in a deliberative fashion to figure out what makes the most sense," he said. The speaker did not directly commit to a House-wide vote on legislation to change the rule on censure, but he said, "I think most of the discussion thus far, again this is coming from members, is that we should raise the threshold so that it can't just be a one-off individual quest by someone. You've got to have some agreement by some small group of members to do it."…