The House of Representatives has adopted new rules that would make it more difficult to initiate a vote to expel the speaker.
House members voted 215 to 209 along party lines to set the House’s rules for the 119th Congress.
Among them was a measure to raise the threshold for calling a “motion to vacate the Speaker” – which triggers a vote in the House of Representatives to remove a sitting Speaker.
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., agreed to lower the threshold to just one person to win over resisters and grab the speaker’s gavel in January 2023, at the start of the 118th Congress.
But the 119th Congress now raises that number from one to nine – and further changes the rule, to specify that nine members of the ruling majority party must be the ones calling the vote.
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Speaker Mike Johnson led the House of Representatives in making it difficult to oust him from the leadership post. (Getty)
That sparked outrage among Democrats, who accused Republicans of downplaying the minority party.
“Their proposed changes would, for the first time in American history, shield the president from accountability to the entire House by allowing only Republicans to impeach the president,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee.
“This makes it clear that they have no intention of working together to find common ground. Instead of electing the Speaker of the House of Representatives, they chose to elect the President of the Republican Conference – who is being held hostage by their most extreme members.”
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Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted after agreeing to lower the threshold for a motion to vacate the chair. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
McCarthy was notably ousted by eight House Republicans and all House Democrats after former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., called for proposal for eviction chairs in October 2023.
The one-vote threshold hung over Johnson like the sword of Damocles for more than a year after he won the speakership later that month.
The change is the product of negotiations between the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and the more pragmatic Republican Main Street Freedom Caucus.
Other changes in the new package of Republican rules include replacing some gender-neutral family language such as “child” and “parent” with more gendered language such as son, daughter, mother and father.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz spearheaded McCarthy’s ouster (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
It also limits The ability of the president of the house bypass traditional chamber procedures to rush the bill to the House of Representatives through a mechanism known as “rule suspension.”
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Johnson’s use of the suspension measure to pass critical legislation with Democratic support angered GOP hardliners at the House GOP conference.
Under the new package, Johnson will only be able to bring the bill to the House of Representatives for a vote under suspension on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
