To make good on their pledges of more federal government accountability, Republicans are requiring every committee to submit a plan for authorization and oversight to the Oversight and House Administration Committees by March 1. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) warned last week that Republicans could use it to “dismantle the federal workforce and carry out political vendettas at the expense of career civil servants.” Committee oversight Both proposals failed to become law.īut Democrats are raising the alarm about the Holman restoration nonetheless. In recent years the rule was used to reduce the salary of the administrator of the Western Area Power Administration to $1 and to eliminate 89 positions at the Congressional Budget Office’s Budget Analysis Division. Republicans have revived the “Holman rule” originated in the 19th century that allows Congress to amend spending bills with the intent of salary reduction or employee termination, or cutting a specific program. Congress is expected to have to act on the debt ceiling sometime by spring. credit rating was downgraded for the first time. defaulting on its debt would trigger unprecedented fiscal calamity, but the return of this rule could bring back the debt ceiling brinkmanship that took hold on the Hill in 2011 when the U.S. That maneuver had been used to let the House avoid a direct vote on lifting the debt ceiling. The package purges the Democrats’ so-called “Gephardt rule,” which had allowed the House to automatically send a measure extending the debt limit to the Senate when it adopts a budget resolution. And, of course, they aren’t interested in moving proposals to increase tax rates. Unlike in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to steer most bills past a filibuster, in the House Republicans will have nearly total control over what legislation and amendments are considered on the floor. In practice, however, that’s more of a statement of ideology than a policymaking gesture. House Republicans’ historically slim majority will, in its rules package, constrain itself severely on tax rate increases - requiring a three-fifths supermajority vote to pass any. The measure from Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) would roll back about $80 billion in IRS funding and decrease revenues by nearly $186 billion. The first bill Republicans are bringing to the floor once the rules package is adopted would increase the deficit by more than $114 billion over a decade, according to a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis released Monday. For example, Republicans could pass extensions of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, some of which have set to expire in 2025 (while others already have). The CUTGO rule only requires offsets if bills would increase mandatory spending within a five-year or 10-year budget window. That doesn’t mean that deficit-increasing tax cuts are off the table. The GOP last put this into place in the 112th Congress. The GOP has replaced PAYGO with what it’s calling CUTGO, which requires mandatory spending increases to be offset only with equal or greater decreases in mandatory spending - no new taxes allowed. It had required legislation that would add to the deficit to be offset with tax increases or spending cuts. Republicans have killed Democrats’ “pay-as-you-go” rule, often shorthanded as PAYGO. Here’s a look at the most consequential elements of the rules package that passed Monday night: PAYGO vs. No matter the size of their victories on their side of the Capitol, though, House conservatives are soon to meet up with a harsh reality: Most legislation that passes their chamber is expected to be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate. To that end, they have secured promises from leaders that aren’t formally written down in the rules, such as allowing more amendments to be considered on the floor and more widely distributing committee positions. But the package approved Monday night includes no new language to enforce that mandate.Īt the heart of the rules push by rank-and-file conservatives, including many in the Freedom Caucus, is a desire to shape a more inclusive legislative process that concentrates less power with leadership. And they secured the ability to seat three of their own on the House Rules Committee, which would give McCarthy’s right flank de facto veto power over any bill that comes to the floor.Ĭonservatives are also claiming victory on enshrining a rule first put in place by Democrats: requiring bills to be released at least 72 hours before a floor vote. Their victories only grew as McCarthy pushed toward his 15th-ballot speakership victory, however: Conservatives successfully pushed to allow a single member to propose what’s known as a “motion to vacate the chair,” a vote that would effectively topple a sitting speaker.
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