Johnson appeared to be on a path to defeat when five Republicans sat silently as their clerk called their names for a vote. Three others — Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas — voted against Johnson.

For once, Speaker Mike Johnson felt like a big man. Striding across the Capitol on Monday in his business attire, the diminutive Republican from Louisiana was asked if government aid for American victims of the California wildfires should be conditional.