The House of Representatives has adopted new rules that make it harder to trigger a vote to oust the speaker. The new rules raise the threshold for calling a “motion to vacate the chair” from one person to nine, and specify that the nine members must be from the sitting majority party. This change is the result of negotiations between the House Freedom Caucus and the Republican Main Street Caucus.
The previous speaker, Kevin McCarthy, agreed to lower the threshold to one person in order to win over holdouts and become speaker in January 2023. However, the new rules make it more difficult for a speaker to be ousted.
Democrats have criticized the change, saying it erodes the significance of the minority party and makes it harder for the speaker to be held accountable. “Their proposed changes would, for the first time in American history, shield the Speaker from accountability to the entire chamber by making it so that only Republicans can move to oust the speaker,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
The new rules also limit the speaker’s ability to bypass traditional chamber processes to rush a bill to the House floor, and restrict the use of the “suspension of the rules” mechanism to Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
The change is seen as a victory for the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, which has been pushing for more power for the speaker. However, it has also been criticized by more pragmatic Republicans who believe it will make it harder to pass legislation.