Republicans look to defang motion to oust House speaker in new rules package
GOP leadership is angling to diminish the motion used to oust a House speaker in order to avoid a repeat of the mutiny against Kevin McCarthy that crippled the lower chamber for some three weeks in 2023.Under a new rules package that is slated for a vote Friday, the motion to vacate the chair will require a lawmaker in the majority party to garner eight co-sponsors in the same party in order to get a vote.That means a minimum of nine Republicans will have to back an effort to topple their speaker in order to trigger a vote.Given the GOP’s slim control in the House, if a rep meets that threshold, the speaker will be successfully ousted unless Democrats intervene.Various Republican factions had reached a deal on the rule change in November.
The threshold for a vote on the motion had previously been one.Former Rep.
Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) exploited the low threshold to oust then-House Speaker McCarthy, a first in US history.At the time, Gaetz had seven Republicans backing him.A subsequent failed bid by Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-La.) to depose Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) last April had 10 Republicans who blocked efforts to quash her motion.Democrats bailed Johnson out at the time.Some Democrats have railed against the rules change.
Typically, the rules packages at the start of the new Congress are partisan pieces of legislation.“The American people did not vote for whatever the hell this is — and you better believe that Democrats will not let Republicans turn the House of Representatives into a rubber stamp for their extremist policies,” Rep.
Jim McGovern (D-Mass) fumed, per Axios.Another key change in the rules package, which was rolled out on Wednesday, includes dissolving the congressional Diversity & Inclusion Office, which Republicans have long maligned.Republicans are also planning to rename the “House Committee on Oversight and Accountability” as “the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform;” and the “Office of Congressional Eth...