"Hell Hath No Fury Like a Newly Elected Speaker of the House - GOVT 101" S 2 EP 3
My Citizen Legislators. The Speaker’s race is over after a ballbusting and brawling on the House floor in the early hours of Saturday, January 7th. On January 9th, the House voted on H.Res. 5 - Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress and for other purposes AKA - House Rules Package for the 118th Congress. The final vote count was 220 to 213, Representative Tony Gonzales (R-TX-23) voted with the Democrats. Rep. Gonzales, a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, denounced that some of McCarthy’s concessions to 21 conservative agitators went too far – specifically one making it easier to oust McCarthy as speaker. In the package of rules changes McCarthy and the Freedom Caucus negotiated for the 118th Congress was a provision allowing a single lawmaker to force a floor vote to oust McCarthy as speaker.
Another rule change, secured by conservatives, would ban the practice of automatically raising the federal debt ceiling when Congress passes a budget resolution. It means that the House and Senate will need to take a separate vote to hike the nation’s borrowing limit in addition, Republicans are demanding massive spending cuts in exchange – cutting mandatory programs, i.e. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Other rules changes in the package included:
- Requiring that new spending has to be offset with cuts elsewhere in the budget.
- Requiring that lawmakers get 72 hours to read a bill before it's brought to the floor.
- Eliminating proxy or remote voting.
- Allowing the House to vote to create a select subcommittee focused on investigating the origins of the pandemic and the “weaponization of the federal government.”
- Gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics, the nonpartisan, independent office that investigates lawmakers.
My Citizen Legislators there you have it! This is what Speaker McCarthy conceded so he could have the job he has pined away for since being elected to Congress in 2006.
There is so much to unpack here. Gutting Office of Congressional Ethics essentially is an attempt to keep the razor thin 9-seat GOP majority in tack. So, no investigations against Rep. George Santos (R-NY-3) or whatever his real name is?
Politico.com: Unpacking the House GOP's new rules: A handy guide to the changes
The Holman Rule (House Rule XXI, Clause 2(b))
BGOV Bill Summary: H. Res. 5, House Rules for the 118th Congress (2)
RollCall.com: House adopts rules package for the 118th Congress
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I am the host, Crystal Ellerbe. I live, breathe, eat, and sleep politics. I’ve done two tours of duty in the US Senate and one tour of duty in the US House. I had the privilege of working in state and local governments, corporate America and several lobbying firms in Washington, DC.
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