On New Year’s Day, House Republicans released their proposed rules package for the 119th Congress. It includes several notable changes to the rules of the House. Most notably, it raises the threshold to introduce a motion to vacate that forces a vote on removing the Speaker of the House so that instead of any single House member being able to force such a vote, such a motion will have to be introduced by a Republican and be joined by eight additional Republican co-sponsors.
The rules package also directs the House to consider several to-be-introduced bills, including, among others:
- A bill mandating that sanctuary jurisdictions providing benefits to aliens who are illegally present in the United States are ineligible for federal funds intended to benefit such aliens.
- A bill requiring the Secretary of Homeland Security to take into custody aliens who have been charged in the United States with theft, and certain other crimes.
- A bill imposing federal criminal and immigration penalties for intentionally fleeing a pursuing federal officer while operating a motor vehicle.
To appease budget hawks, the new rules also require the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, “to the extent practicable,” to prepare an estimate of whether a bill or joint resolution reported by a committee (other than the Committee on Appropriations), or amendment or conference report, would cause, relative to current law, a net increase in direct spending in excess of $2.5 billion in any of the four consecutive ten fiscal year periods beginning with the first fiscal year that is ten fiscal years after the current fiscal year. Moreover, a point of order may be raised to prevent consideration of any bill or joint resolution reported by a committee, or amendment thereto or conference report thereon, that would cause such a net increase in direct spending.
The rules package also amends the name of the Committee on Education and the Workforce by remove “the” before “Workforce,” changes the name of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability back to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, renames the Office of Congressional Ethics to be the Office of Congressional Conduct, and dissolves the congressional Diversity & Inclusion Office.
The new rules also authorize subpoenas of Attorney General Merrick Garland and other DOJ officials as part of House Republicans’ investigations into the Biden family’s finances.