diff --git a/submission_broker/submission_agent.py b/submission_broker/submission_agent.py
index 6e49a107..8eb6f99b 100644
--- a/submission_broker/submission_agent.py
+++ b/submission_broker/submission_agent.py
@@ -870,7 +870,12 @@ def get_all_submissions(self, task_jobs):
             data=jobs_query,
             timeout=self.timeouts,
         )
-        jobs_dict = jobs_results.json()
+        try:
+            jobs_dict = jobs_results.json()
+        except requests.exceptions.JSONDecodeError:
+            record_queue_log("request yielded non-json %s" % jobs_results.text)
+            jobs_dict = {}
+
         jobs_results.close()
         
         if jobs_dict.get("errors", None) != None: