Republican members of the House have revealed they have a plan to ensure that it is extremely difficult to toss out the Speaker of the House during the 119th Congress, which can be seen in a new rules package that was released on Wednesday. The new package would prevent House Democrats from being able to introduce a motion to vacate the speaker and increase the minimum number of Republicans needed to go to a vote on booting the speaker to a total of 9.
” The current rules for the 118th Congress allow any member of the House to trigger a vote to oust the speaker,” The Daily Caller said. ”
The proposed threshold of nine GOP members to trigger a vote to remove the speaker is notably one member higher than the eight House Republicans that voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in October 2023. Four of these congressmen, Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Bob Good of Virginia, Ken Buck of Colorado and Matt Rosendale of Montana, are not serving in the 119th Congress.”
Rules state that the House has to vote on a speaker for the 119th Congress before it can take up any legislation or order of business, which includes the package that was released on Wednesday. As of this writing, the House will hold a vote for speaker on Friday. Current Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, is running for a second term in the seat. However, due to the razor-thin margin the GOP holds in the House, Johnson can only lose one vote, which is assuming that every Republican shows up for the vote and every single Democrat casts their vote in favor of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie has committed to voting for another GOP member besides Johnson and several House Republicans, including Chip Roy of Texas, Andy Harris of Maryland, Victoria Spartz of Indiana and Andy Biggs of Arizona are undecided on the speaker vote. The rules package also sets up 12 bills for consideration, including legislation that would prohibit a ban on fracking, require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and to amend the definition of sex to be “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth” for title IX purposes.
Several conservative House Republicans criticized the rules package for triggering a vote on a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) for efforts to “investigate, detain, or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies,” citing their beliefs that House GOP leadership has misplaced priorities for the start of the upcoming Congress.
“But how did a bill to protect Netanyahu make it into the House rules package to be voted on immediately after the Speaker vote,” Massie stated in a post on X Wednesday. “Where are our priorities?!”
“The United States is not a member of the ICC and does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November. House Republicans have sharply criticized the ICC’s move to arrest Netanyahu over Israel’s war against Hamas and passed a resolution in June to impose sanctions on the court if it sought to prosecute the United States or its allies. The Senate, under Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s leadership, did not take up the legislation,” the report went on to reveal.
"*" indicates required fields
