The House Rules: Which Matter, Which Don’t 

Monday night’s House of Representatives vote passed the much-discussed rules package. It was the subject of intensive negotiations between Kevin McCarthy, the House Speaker (Republican from California), and the GOP holdouts who ultimately helped to raise McCarthy.

Which of these rules is most important in the real world? Which rules are symbolic? Below, you will find a guideline to the House rules package.

Adding to the confusion, though, is that there’s still a lot we don’t know about the scope of the concessions McCarthy made during the negotiations that eventually led to his election as speaker, including deals on key committee chairmanships. Already, We learned Monday that Mark Green, a member of House Freedom Caucus, voted out McCarthy ally Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R., Texas, to take the chairmanship of Homeland Security Committee.

• What was promised to the right flank of the GOP conference by way of policy concessions in exchange for their vote to increase the debt ceiling

• Whether McCarthy made promises to dole out subcommittee gavels to his opponents

• Whether McCarthy agreed to widen the aperture of the party’s oversight agenda

Background: Any rule may be waived by the majority. The rules are not a mandatory requirement, but more reflect the House majority at any time. They can also be overridden at will.

1. The motion for vacate: This rule change allows one member to request a vote of confidence in McCarthy. McCarthy’s GOP opponents were able to get a concession from him to lower the threshold for calling such votes from five members to one. However, any detractor would still require at least five members to defeat McCarthy in order to win a no-confidence motion.

This rule is actually a way for a few lawmakers to obstruct the work and put pressure on McCarthy. But the reality is probably worse. Why? Why? They would likely need to join hands with Democrats in order to get rid of McCarthy.

2. The Rules Committee meets: McCarthy sold three of the nine key committee seats to the Freedom Caucus, its allies, and handed the conservative faction