Barely a year after Republicans began the first-ever attempt to remove a single Republican from office, Republicans are expected to change the rules of the House of Representatives to make it more difficult to remove the Speaker.
Former Representative Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker of the House in January 2023, but was not elected on the first ballot. It took four days and 15 votes for lawmakers to finally find a consensus and support Mr. McCarthy, but the infighting didn’t stop there.
House rules currently allow one lawmaker to make a motion to remove the Speaker and initiate a vote on the floor. So when former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced a motion to oust McCarthy from the top House post, a vote was initiated and there was enough support to oust McCarthy.
Current House Speaker Mike Johnson (left) and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. (Getty Images)
But House Republicans are trying to change that rule to make it harder to vacate the top positions in Congress in the future.
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McCarthy’s firing leaves Congress without an official speaker for two months in 2023, raising questions about whether only one lawmaker should be empowered to introduce such motions.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (Kent Nishimura) listens during a press conference after the Republican convention at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., January 17, 2024.
Under new proposed House rules announced Wednesday, Republicans are seeking a rule change that would require a lawmaker to have eight co-sponsors to introduce a motion to vacate the speakership.
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Under the rules, lawmakers and their co-sponsors must belong to the “majority party” and only Republicans, who currently hold the majority, will have the power to file resignation motions for the next two years. .
Former Congressman Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the Speaker’s position on October 4, 2023. (Valerie Preche/Getty Images)
The rule was slammed by Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., who said the proposed changes would “protect the speaker from accountability to the entire Congress.”
“The American people didn’t vote for what this is all about,” McGovern said, according to Axios. “Democrats better believe they won’t allow Republicans to turn the House of Representatives into a rubber stamp for extremist policies.” .
Representative Jim McGovern said the proposed changes would “protect the Speaker’s accountability to the entire Congress,” Axios reported. (Tom Williams)
The proposed rules package will be voted on once the Speaker is elected and the 119th Congress is in session. The first chair vote is expected to take place this Friday.
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Current House Speaker Mike Johnson is seeking re-election. Currently, one Republican lawmaker, Representative Thomas Massie, has said he will not vote for Mr. Johnson. But the speaker recently received enthusiastic support from President-elect Donald Trump.
Aubrey Spady is a writer for Fox News Digital.
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