The government is shut down and so, apparently, is the House of Representatives. Speaker Mike Johnson has kept the House on an indefinite hiatus over the last month. That decision has halted the work of passing bills and doing oversight, while also blocking the swearing-in of a new Democratic representative.

Johnson’s decision has “diminished the role of Congress and shrunken the speakership” at a moment when President Donald Trump is claiming more power for himself, said Annie Karni at The New York Times . Johnson has “chosen to make himself subservient to Mr. Trump” instead of a “governing partner” as speakers before him have been. The president is taking notice. “I’m the speaker and the president,” Trump reportedly said to associates. That has created a “strange dynamic” in which J

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