Freedom Caucus Gains Most of Its Rules Reforms, but Speaker’s Race Still Wide Open

The House of Representatives will now be subject to new rules in the 118th Congress.pdfThe following are several reforms that conservative Republicans seek to implement in order to limit the power of congressional leaders, and give rank-and file members greater control over the lower chamber.

This is the most controversial of all rules reforms sought by the House Freedom Caucus under its chairman, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.)—bringing back the motion to vacate the chair, thus forcing a new vote for a speaker of the House—was a late addition by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), to the package that was made publicly late on Jan. 1.

McCarthy reversed His previous opposition to the motion was overcome during a conference phone call with House Republicans.

That motion—which empowers a single member of the House at any time to propose a vote for a new speaker of the House—was in effect for virtually the entire history of Congress, but it was dropped after Democrats regained the House majority in 2018.

The new rule reinstates the one-member motion, but requires that at least four cosponsors be present. It was first used in 2015, when Rep. Mark Meadows (R.N.C.) made it. This forced the resignation of Speaker John Boehner.

McCarthy’s reversal on the motion to vacate came as he struggled to collect enough votes from among the new Republican House majority that includes 222 members. If all members of Congress are present at the floor on Jan. 3, when the 118th Congress convenes, McCarthy must receive at least 218 votes.

McCarthy is also promising, as part of his speaker campaign, to make greater use of the Constitution’s grant to the House in Article I of the power to originate all federal spending. This provision gives the House great leverage over the Senate and president. House conservatives have long urged Republican leaders not to use it more often.

“Just as we used this year’s annual defense bill to repeal the vaccine mandate on our service members, we will pinpoint ‘must pass’ legislation to advance shared conservative policy aims—chief among them: securing our border, restoring our energy independence, and balancing our budget,” McCarthy wrote to the House Republicans.

Rules for funding

The new rules package (pdf) includes restoration of a requirement that any federal tax rate increase is approved by at least three-fifths of the House, as well as restoration of the CUTGO rule that requires any mandatory federal spending increase be offset with a cut in other requiring expenditures and requires the Congressional Budget Office to report on the inflationary impact of proposed legislation.

The Holman Rule is also restored in the package. This on-again/off-again provision, which dates back to the post-Civil War period, allows Congress to end funding the salary or benefits of an individual civil servant in executive branch.

The Epoch Times – Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, spoke on behalf of The Epoch Times “the Republican caucus will adopt two rules that will stop much of the bleeding and begin to turn America around.”

“First, any tax hike will require a three/fifths vote, not a simple majority vote, to pass the House. Second, any increase in entitlement spending must be matched with an equal or greater reduction in entitlement spending. And a cap on new entitlement costs and on taxes. That is a strong defensive line.”

Norquist was one of the architects of then-future Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” The result was that Republicans won the House majority again in 1994, for the first-time in over 40 years.

Prepare for the unexpected. onslaught of oversight investigations, particularly by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability—formerly known as Oversight and Reform—and the House Judiciary Committee, the new rules require every House panel with oversight authority to make public an oversight plan no later than March.

The House Committee on Education and Labor has been renamed the panel on Education and the Workforce.

Pandemic Rules dropped

Concerning the question of reopening House to public, the rules eliminate the proxy voting system that was initiated by Nancy Pelosi (D.Calif.) in March 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new rules also reinstate the long-standing requirement for House members to be physically present to attend committee hearings. This is in addition to being able, as Pelosi permitted under her pandemic policies, that they could participate virtually.

Also gone are Pelosi’s mandated mask-wearing by representatives and staff on the floor and in the Capitol Complex, as well as fines for members who don’t go through metal detectors before entering the House chamber.

Other actions required by the new rules include establishing a new House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party and a refocusing of the purpose of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic to probe the origins of the disease, U.S. funding of gain-of-function research that could’ve led to the pandemic, and analyses of the economic and social impact of mandatory closures of schools and businesses.

The House Judiciary Committee gains a new Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government with investigative authority. McCarthy stated in his letter that the focus of the new subcommittee’s investigation will be on the Federal Government. “exposing the weaponization of government against our citizenry, writ large.”

The new rules make it mandatory that all bills be made public for 72 hours before they are put to the House’s voting. This is to improve transparency and efficiency. They also require that Pelosi’s Jan. 6 panel turn over all of its records to the House Committee on Administration no later than Jan. 17, make it easier for members to offer amendments to bills from the House floor, and protect the right of members to use gender-specific words in committee hearings and on the floor.

Under the new rules, House Democrats’ decision to authorize congressional staff unions was also reversed. It isn’t clear yet what the status will be of the several Democratic office staff that applied in 2022 for permission to organize union representation.

Jim McGovern, D-Mass., Chairman of the House Rules Committee condemned According to the leaders of the majority, the Republicans have proposed new rules “have once again caved to the most extreme members of their own caucus: allowing the far-right to hold the incoming Speaker hostage; attempting to end Congressional staff unionization; reinstating CUTGO so they can more easily cut taxes on billionaire corporations while slashing the social safety net; giving committee chairs unbalanced discretion over which witnesses can and cannot testify; rejecting commonsense pandemic safety procedures like remote voting by proxy; and reinstating the Holman rule so they can target civil servants they disagree with.”

Correspondent for the Congress

The Epoch Times Congressional Correspondent