House adopts new Rules

Two exciting things happened yesterday. First came the release of the thirteenth Twitter Files. Second came the adoption of the Rules of the House of Representatives. This last was important because it could have gone disastrously wrong – as some feared it would. But the Rules Package that twenty holdout Representative negotiated with eventual Speaker Kevin McCarth (R-Calif.), passed. By all accounts it passed as negotiated. The howls of anguish from some quarters suggest that this could be a significant achievement in redeeming Constitutional government.

The adoption of the new House Rules

Reportage on the new House Rules comes from The Daily Caller, The Daily Signal, Creative Destruction Media, and two reports from Just the News. One of these last two reports held a link to a draft analysis of the new Rules. Kevin McCarthy, of course, had to agree to these Rules to persuade enough Republicans to let him become Speaker.

At 6:30 p.m. EST last night, the House of Representatives passed “Resolution Five” to adopt the new Rules. The vote was 220-213, with one Republican absent.

All the Democrats, plus Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), voted No. The absent Representative was Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas). Laura Loomer reports:

Tellingly, the House Steering Committee passed Crenshaw over and chose Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) to head the Homeland Security Committee.

What is in those Rules?

Among the parts of the package that survived to pass by the membership:

• A Motion to Vacate the Chair, also known as a Jeffersonian motion, requires only one Member to move it.
• Any increase in the national debt ceiling requires a separate vote. The “Gephardt Rule” (after Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo.), which deemed the debt ceiling raised in the passage of any budget resolution, is now null and void.
• Tax increases – which must originate in the House of Representatives (per Article I Section 7 Clause 1) – require a 60 percent supermajority of the House.
• All bills must cover one subject only. “Omnibus bills” will now be against the Rules. This requires every Department to have its own budget bill.
• “Pay as you go” gives away to “cut as you go.” The Rules now forbid increases in mandatory spending within five or ten years.
• Members have a minimum of 72 hours to read all bills.
• “Dynamic scoring” of spending and revenue impacts replaces the “static scoring” that prevailed before. People do change their behavior with different tax rates, and dynamic scoring will reflect this.
• The “Holman Rule,” allowing Congress to cut programs, cut salaries, and fire people, returns to full force and effect.
• The House Judiciary Committee will gain a Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
• The rules provide for votes to block taxpayer funding of “reproductive services,” among other conservative priorities.

Reaction

MSNBC correspondent Tim Miller left this bitter tweet:

This user was even more bitter:

The immediate practical effect of this Rules change will likely be deadlock between House and Senate. For that, blame Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who could have taken the Senate, but didn’t.

But in 2024, twenty-two Democratic Senators will be up for reelection. So the campaign to embarrass the Senate, and highlight what is wrong with a Democratic-controlled Senate, begins now. It began yesterday when House Republicans voted as one to defund those 87,000 new IRS agents for which the Omnibus Bill provided. Every such bill is another opportunity to call one’s Senator and urge a vote – in favor. And every vote any Senator casts against it, is another black mark on that Senator’s record.

More to the point, those new House Rules ensure that the Democrats can’t pass any more spending programs. The real test will come at the next Budget Time. Remember:

All bills for raising revenue, shall originate in the House of Representatives. Article I, Section 7, Clause 1