Cannabis
Johnson has voted against all major cannabis laws, including the SAFE banking law, which would give weed companies easier access to financial services. This bill has broad bipartisan support and is the top priority of the cannabis industry.
Johnson also voted against legislation to decriminalize cannabis. passed the House twice under Democratic controland he voted against a bill to expand medical marijuana research that Biden signed the law earlier this year. Johnson’s home state of Louisiana has a limited medical marijuana program, but no legal sales of recreational marijuana.
Cyber security
Johnson has repeatedly used his seat on the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee to criticize the White House’s efforts to combat health and election-related misinformation and question its efforts to saving one of the FBI’s main foreign surveillance tools.
Johnson’s election would likely herald tougher oversight from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency – which he says pressured social media platforms to censor conservative voices during the 2020 election , a charge the agency vehemently denies. He is a member of the Judicial Commission committee investigating the politicization of the federal government, which published a fiery report bashing the agency earlier this summer. Last month, he joined 107 Republican colleagues voted in favor of a 25 percent cut to the agency’s budget.
The four-term lawmaker has long criticized the government’s use of a spying tool that the White House is fighting to protect: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The law will expire at the end of the year absent congressional action, and the White House has argued that it is increasingly important to thwart criminal and state-sponsored cyberattacks.
In January 2022, Johnson co-wrote a letter with the Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, alleging several abuses committed by the FBI under the law.
Although he served on the Judiciary and Armed Services committees, he signed few laws related to cybersecurity. One exception: In 2017, he introduced an amendment to that year’s National Defense Authorization Act to strengthen cyber workforce readiness.
China
China hawks in the House say they expect Johnson to support their work to crack down on Beijing’s trade practices and industrial policies.
“I feel like he’s taking a ‘smart hawk’ stance on China,” the representative said. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.), chairman of the House Select Committee on China. “I think he would be excited about a lot of the things we’re doing, but I haven’t had a chance to sit down with him yet.”
Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives focused on trade policy expressed similar optimism, although they also said they had yet to discuss the issue with the new president.
In 2020, as head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, Johnson co-authored a national security report with a section on trade issues with China. This document called for tougher sanctions against companies and individuals affiliated with the Chinese military, as well as the pursuit of bilateral trade agreements with like-minded countries.
In particular, he called for a trade agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom and advocated the expansion of trade with Indo-Pacific countries such as Taiwan, Indonesia, Mongolia and others with the aim of countering China in a “Conservative manual.” And he supported the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the rewrite of NAFTA signed by former President Donald Trump and which received broad bipartisan support.
These policies are largely consistent with the trade agenda of former President Donald Trump, who was in office at the time the report was released. But the new president also broke with the president on the issue of tariffs, saying he preferred to use sanctions to penalize China for intellectual property theft, rather than the broad tariffs imposed by Trump.
Trade unions
Johnson has been a staunch conservative on labor issues. According to the AFL-CIO’s vote tracker, he opposed union policy positions about 90 percent of the time, which is about the average for Republicans.
In 2022, the most recent year publicly analyzed by the AFL-CIO, it never voted with the positions of the trade union organization, opposing such measures, the law on the reduction of inflation, the CHIPS and Science Act and a resolution supporting an expansion of sick leave for railroad workers.
The times he has voted alongside labor federation positions, they have typically been on laws with broad Republican support, such as some coronavirus-related bills in 2020.
Immigration
Johnson has been a hawk on immigration. He presented a bill thrice aimed at strengthening the asylum system, including raising the bar for undocumented immigrants to establish their fear of persecution.
The Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for lower immigration, praised Johnson’s record in a blog post on Wednesday. “If the new speaker is Mike Johnson, the man who presides will also be one of the leading experts on this topic,” wrote Andrew Arthur, resident scholar at the Center for Immigration Studies.
Climate and energy
Johnson, from a top oil and gas producing state, has a slim record on energy, although like virtually all Republicans he voted in favor of H.R. 1, the party’s answer to Biden and to Democrats’ massive 2022 climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act.
The GOP messaging bill offered support to the fossil fuel industry by seeking to undo parts of the IRA aimed at accelerating the transition to clean energy and sought to relax permitting rules under the National Environmental Policy Act. But he has also criticized efforts to combat climate change, and in a 2017 statement opinion piece written in the Shreveport TimesJohnson denounced the United States’ adherence to the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
“Few Americans deny that the Earth’s climate is changing. Indeed, the evidence shows that cycles of climate change have always been part of Earth’s history,” Johnson wrote, using a common argument that fossil fuel advocates use to deny the evidence that emissions from human activity are the main driver of climate change. change. He also touted the potential for increasing natural gas production in his district to “help preserve the environment.”
Technology
Johnson is largely aligned with the majority of Republicans on technology priorities on the Hill. He opposed last year’s sweep CHIPS and Science Act bill, which will dedicate billions of dollars to building the nation’s microchip infrastructure. Johnson also voted against the Infrastructure Act of 2021, which included $65 billion for broadband expansion. He also widely favors limiting agency powers, signing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to stop deferring to regulators on how to interpret their competence.
Still, Johnson praised federal spending on broadband, such as the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which set aside millions of dollars for Louisiana. Telecom watchers are also looking to understand how Johnson might respond to the White House’s upcoming call to claw back billions of dollars in funding for the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity program, which helps low-income households pay their bills monthly broadband. In a research note to investors Wednesday, New Street Research reported that 29 percent of Johnson District households are enrolled in this program.
Artificial intelligence: Johnson co-hosted a dinner for Sam Altman in May to meet with about 60 lawmakers the day before the OpenAI CEO testified before Congress. Aside from his membership on the House Armed Services Committee, Johnson is not part of any committee actively working to legislate AI. Yet Johnson chaired the Republican Study Committee when it produced a report in June 2020 on national security, which once mentioned AI, warning lawmakers to pay attention to China’s growing capabilities.
Corporate monopolies
Johnson serves on the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees enforcement of federal antitrust laws by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, and is a key gatekeeper for antitrust law updates. Although Johnson has said little about his thoughts on competition policy, he voted against bills in 2021 that would have strengthened antitrust enforcement in the tech sector, including a proposal to prohibit Google, Apple, Meta and Amazon from favoring their own products over those of their competitors. He also has expressed skepticism on the direction of the FTC under Chairman Lina Khan during a hearing in June.
John Sakellariadis, Maggie Miller, Juan Perez Jr., Michael Stratford, Gavin Bade, Olivia Olander, Brendan Bordelon, Mohar Chatterjee, Mallory Culhane, John Hendel, Josh Sisco, Connor O’Brien, Joe Gould, Katherine Ellen Foley, Alice Miranda Ollstein , Brian Faler, Meredith Lee Hill, Natalie Fertig, James Bikales, Kelsey Tamborrino, Ben Lefebvre and Zach Warmbrodt contributed to this report.
