Republicans are set to make it more difficult to remove the speaker of the House in the upcoming 119th Congress, as revealed in a new rules package announced Wednesday. The proposed changes would raise the bar for initiating a motion to vacate the speaker’s seat, requiring nine GOP members to back such a motion before a vote can be triggered. This is a significant shift from the current system, where a single Republican member has the power to demand a vote on the speaker’s removal.
The agreement to raise the threshold for triggering a vote was hammered out last November between members of the House Freedom Caucus and the Main Street Caucus, which represents small business interests. Even if a vote to remove the speaker is initiated, it would still need the support of a majority of House members for the speaker to actually be ousted.
The release of the rules package, which includes proposed alterations to the House’s operational procedures, comes ahead of the new Congress’s official start this Friday. Republicans will need to formally approve the package on the House floor, but that can’t happen until the speaker is chosen. Alongside the change to the motion to vacate, the rules package proposes adjustments to the names of two House committees, grants committees the ability to establish electronic voting protocols, and sets the stage for votes on 12 bills introduced by Republicans. These bills cover topics such as immigration, voter ID laws, and transgender student athletes. One of these bills, dealing with the International Criminal Court, has already faced opposition from some members of the GOP’s more conservative wing.
Speaker Mike Johnson, in a recent interview with Fox News, expressed confidence that he would secure the necessary votes to become speaker despite the slim majority held by his party. However, he has yet to secure the votes he needs within his own party. The Republicans are expected to have a 219-215 majority at the start of the new Congress, meaning Johnson can afford to lose only a handful of votes and still maintain the support he needs to win the speakership.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) became the first Republican to announce he would vote for another candidate for speaker, though he has not yet revealed who that would be. About a dozen other Republicans remain uncertain about whether they will support Johnson on January 3. Johnson can only afford to lose one GOP vote; any additional defectors siding with Massie could disrupt his bid for speaker.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the Freedom Caucus, took to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday to announce that he had not yet made up his mind about the speaker vote, but emphasized that he was not outright opposed to Johnson. “The reason I am still undecided on the Speaker vote (as opposed to hard no) is it’s not ALL the fault of [Johnson] & my desire is to give him grace & [Trump] room to deliver on a strong agenda for which we were elected. But something MUST change,” Roy posted online.
Several holdouts have continued to propose changes to the rules or expressed a desire for Johnson to make specific commitments, particularly regarding spending, as they weigh their votes. Roy has also been in talks with other GOP members to assess the viability of other candidates, including Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), should Johnson fail to secure the necessary votes.
Johnson’s team is closely monitoring the situation and is tracking about a dozen GOP holdouts as they prepare for Friday’s vote, according to sources familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity. Johnson also mentioned in an interview with a Louisiana radio station that he planned to meet with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss strategies for the coming year. Trump had recently reiterated his support for Johnson’s speakership.
“Many of them are pretty soft holdouts,” one of the sources said. However, they cautioned that “it doesn’t take very many hard holdouts to cause problems.”
{Matzav.com}