The moment some readers see the words “rules package” and “Congress,” they’re likely to click away, but don’t move on just yet, because the new rules approved by House Republicans are likely to matter in the near future.
The basic idea of a rules package is to establish instructions that will dictate how the chamber operates over the course of the 119th Congress. Most of the time, there’s little reason for those outside of Capitol Hill to care, but around this time two years ago, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — desperate to lock up far-right support for his leadership post — made all kinds of costly concessions, most of which were included in the GOP’s rules package.
At the top of the list: The California Republican agreed to change the threshold for a motion to vacate to just one member, which meant in practical terms that any individual GOP member could try to launch an effort to oust McCarthy.
Nine months into his tenure, McCarthy faced just such a revolt from a faction of his own Republican conference — at which point McCarthy became the first speaker in American history to be kicked out of office mid-term.
All of which served as a timely reminder: Rules packages can matter. It’s against this backdrop that Politico reported late last week on GOP lawmakers approving a new set of rules, which included one big change.
The narrowly divided House has adopted a rules package, with a vote of 215-209, that most notably will see a significantly raised threshold for members to trigger an effort to oust the speaker. Under the section-by-section analysis of the rules, it would now take nine members of the Republican conference to trigger a motion to vacate the speakership, a threshold that was just a single member when the GOP opted to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy last Congress.
There were, to be sure, a variety of other procedural changes — measures on the suspension calendar can now only receive votes on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, for example — and some proposals, including one related to members and which bathrooms they can use, were left on the cutting room floor.
But the one Speaker Mike Johnson probably cares about most is the one that will make it easier for him to keep his gavel, at least for the next two years: If some of his own party want to remove him from his leadership position, they’ll need at least nine GOP members to participate in the intraparty revolt.
Why nine? House Republicans didn’t say, although for context the total number of GOP members who took away McCarthy’s gavel was eight.
In practical terms, it wouldn’t be easy for Johnson’s GOP critics to pull together such a contingent — only three House Republicans opposed the speaker’s bid for a second term, and two of them ended up changing their minds — but some in the party wasted no time in reminding their colleagues of the possibility, anyway. Republican Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri, for example, warned that if the speaker again tried to “get Democratic votes” to fund the government or pass other major legislation, “he will immediately be motion to vacated.” Around the same time, Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said he had inflexible expectations about Congress cutting federal spending in the coming months. “[I]t better damn well happen,” Roy told Politico. Asked what would happen if it doesn’t, the Texan said, “Use your imagination.” In other words, Johnson was elected to a second term as speaker on Jan. 3, and by Jan. 4, some House Republicans were already floating public threats in his direction. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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