Mike Johnson gets bypassed more than any past speaker

House members in both parties are embracing the discharge petition like never before to sidestep Speaker https://www.axios.com/2026/04/29/mike-johnson-gop-revolt-dhs-shutdown-fisa" target="_blank">Mike Johnson (R-La.) and pass bills he refuses to put on the floor.

Why it matters: Republican leaders have https://www.axios.com/2024/05/16/house-democrats-congress-gop-discharge-petition" target="_blank">long discouraged their members from signing onto Democratic-led petitions, but those pleas are increasingly falling on deaf ears.

• Johnson https://www.axios.com/2025/11/21/mike-johnson-house-discharge-petitions-epstein" target="_blank">briefly floated changes to House rules last year to make it harder for discharge petitions to succeed.
• He said at the time the tactic was "too common," with Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) saying he would "like to see a higher threshold for a lot of these motions."

Driving the news: A https://clerk.house.gov/DischargePetition/2026042019?Page=2" target="_blank">discharge petition introduced by Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) hit 218 signatures on Wednesday.

It will force a vote on https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr5408/BILLS-119hr5408ih.pdf" target="_blank">legislation aimed at speeding up unionization negotiations.

• The petition was signed by 211 Democrat and seven Republicans, with Reps.

  Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) and Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) providing the final signatures.

• The turnaround was lightning fast: Norcross introduced the petition on April 20 and the trio of Republicans signed it exactly a month later.

By the numbers: This is the eighth time in the 119th Congress that a discharge petition has reached the necessary 218 signatures to force a House vote.

• https://www.axios.com/2024/09/19/discharge-petition-social-security-mike-johnson" target="_blank">Two other petitions secured 218 signatures in 2024, for a total of 10 in the last two years.
• That represents more than 20% of the successful discharge petitions since 1935, according to https://www.axios.com/2025/11/21/mike-johnson-house-discharge-petitions-epstein" target="_blank">data compiled by Axios' Kate Santaliz.
• The 119th Congress has seen the most discharge petitions hit the necessary signature threshold of any congressional session since the tool was created in its modern form, according to https://x.com/bindersab/status/2057262024321577269?s=20" target="_blank">Good Authority.

The bottom line: The petitions have had a mixed record so far.

• The two in 2024 — one to expand Social Security benefits to retirees who receive certain government pensions, and the other to provide tax breaks to victims of natural disaster — both got signed into law.
• But just one of the eight discharge petitions this year — the Epstein Files Transparency Act — has become law, with several others passing the House but languishing in the Senate.
• Johnson even managed to effectively shut down Rep. Anna Paulina Luna's (R-Fla.) discharge petition to allow limited proxy voting for House members with newborn children.