Wins in New House Rules

Pressure from constituents like us has delivered a significant win for us in the House! Over fierce opposition from Republicans, Democrats in the House enacted new legislative rules governing the next two years of House operations. (The House adopts new rules at the beginning of each new Congress, the Senate only changes its rules when they are forced by political pressure to do so.)

Indivisible has been demanding significant changes to arcane and corrupt House rules that have long been used to block progressive legislation. Speaker Pelosi described the changes as “unprecedented, bold reforms." A more accurate characterization would be small, but significant, steps in response to constituent pressure for real change While these reforms do fall short of all that we asked for, real legislative progress is always won through partial victories one step at a time. So these new rules should be celebrated as wins. 

The two most significant fights were changes to the PayGo and MTR rules.

PayGo requires that new domestic spending be "paid for" by cuts elsewhere in the domestic budget. In other words, under PayGo there could never be any total increase in non-defense spending. We called to eliminate PayGo, but that didn't happen this time around. However, the House did amend it to exempt bills and appropriations regarding the pandemic emergency and global climate crisis. This means that Emergency Relief and Green New Deal can't be strangled to death before there's even a debate or a vote.

MTR -- Motion to Recommit -- is a last-moment parliamentary maneuver used by Republicans and conservative Democrats to derail and block progressive legislation just before final passage. MTR was not repealed, but it was amended to make it harder for conservatives to block popular legislation that benefits We the People rather than those represented by the lobbyists.

Other new or amended rules bolster whistleblower protections, increase diversity, strengthen ethics standards, and limit conflicts of interest. Also on the plus side, War Powers Resolutions can no longer be tabled without a vote on the substance of the issue. 

There’s still a lot of progress to make on House rules. The changes made to increase subpoena power over the Executive branch appear more cosmetic than real. And the House still seems unwilling to contemplate using its power of inherent contempt to force Presidents and White House staff to honor subpoenas.

We will continue to pressure our Members of Congress to make the House (and the Senate, and every part of the government) work for us, the people.