BOSSIER CITY, LA –
On Friday, in his hometown of Benton, LA, Speaker Mike Johnson and his wife Kelly cast their votes for Republicans up and down the ballot and encouraged all Louisianians to make their plans to vote. Afterwards, Speaker Johnson held a press conference with local media and reflected on 365 days of serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“It was exactly one year ago today, on October 25th, that we got the rather surreal and unexpected opportunity to lead the Congress. And it’s not a job, as we’ve explained before, that we ever expected or anticipated or threw our hat in initially. But it’s been our great honor to serve in that capacity as the 56th speaker of the House. I’m the first Speaker of the House we’ve ever had from the state of Louisiana, and it has been a real honor for us,” Speaker Johnson said. “It’s been humbling and a great opportunity, but it doesn’t it doesn’t overshadow the great honor that it is to be the representative of the people of the great state of Louisiana and the Fourth Congressional District. That has been the great honor of our lives, and we have been really thankful to do that.”

Johnson also spoke on serving the people of Louisiana’s 4th District saying that, “We’re one of the largest military districts in America, as most people know. We have Barksdale Air Force Base, we’re home to the Global Strike Command. We have Fort Johnson down in the Leesville area, southern part of the district, and the Joint Readiness Training Center, and of course Camp Minden as well. I wrote down a couple of the figures of the things we’ve been able to bring home. I joined the House Armed Services Committee back in 2021, and that was a key position before I became Speaker. But certainly, since becoming Speaker we’ve been able to secure a lot of the needs for the district: $3.5 billion in that time for the Air Force B-52 program, $2.6 billion for the Long Range Standoff Weapon program, and over $750 million in military construction projects for the Fourth District.

We also were able to get into this year’s NDAA. Some things we fought for: a 19.5% pay increase for junior enlisted service members, a 4.5% increase for all service members. We expanded the food and housing allowance, and we authorized more than $1 billion to improve barracks and living conditions on bases throughout the country. My staff has also been doing an extraordinary job because when you become Speaker of the House, you become a steward for the whole country. But our first priority has always been to take care of our people here. And my staff has really stepped up. We’ve had resource fairs for veterans throughout the district. We’ve had roundtables with local farmers and healthcare workers and elected officials and pastors and clergy around the district, grant seminars for local law enforcement and other interested parties and FEMA disaster preparedness briefings.

Contact: Greg Steele