The House of Representatives passed a new rules package Monday that revamps the way it functions by throwing more obstacles in the way of reckless congressional spending and creating a more deliberate process for passing legislation. These were key demands of both Chip Roy and Matt Gaetz as they negotiated with McCarthy prior to paving the way for him to become Speaker Of The House.
The rules passed with a 220-213 vote that saw just one Republican, Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, vote against it. Passage of the blueprint for how the GOP will run the House is the first sign of success for McCarthy after fighting 15 grueling rounds for the speaker’s gavel last week.
Changes to the rules package were negotiated up through the 11th hour as part of a deal to earn McCarthy the votes for the speaker. Pushing for those changes were Roy, Rep. Byron Donalds, (R-FL), and freshman congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, (R-FL), who said last week at the Capitol the changes will be “transformational, and it will outlast every person in this room.”
Central to the package is the provision the conservative Freedom Caucus wanted that reinstates a longstanding rule that allows any one lawmaker makes a motion to “vacate the chair” — a vote to oust the speaker. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had done away with the rule when Democrats took charge in 2019 because conservatives had held it over past Republican speakers as a threat.
Rep. Morgan Griffith, (R-VA), said the rules are about “getting back to the basics.”
Among other things, rules include the end of Pelosi-era proxy voting and require members to vote in person from the House floor.
McCarthy also signed off on a pledge that the Republican-led House would pair any debt ceiling increase to spending cuts and would approve a budget capping discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels – which, if implemented, would roll back the fiscal 2023 spending increase for both defense and non-defense spending from last month’s $1.7 trillion omnibus package.
According to Fox News, the newly adopted rules also include a provision that allows House Freedom Caucus members to receive three of the nine seats on the House Rules Committee, which dictates the terms of how bills are brought to the floor and how they can be amended.
The package also includes a return to a “Cut-As-You-Go” policy that says legislation cannot be considered if it increases mandatory spending over a 5- or 10-year period. This “CUTGO” policy requires bills that call for new spending to find offsetting spending cuts elsewhere in the federal budget – an ambitious new curb on federal spending, part of the GOP’s effort to stop piling on trillions of dollars in new debt each year.
