Johnson protected, diversity office scrapped in new House rules
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The U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 31, 2024. Photo: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
House Republicans on Wednesday released their proposed rules package for the 119th Congress, which includes several notable changes to the rules that governed the lower chamber for the last two years.
Why it matters: The most crucial alteration raises the threshold to introduce a motion to vacate — a measure to force a vote on ousting the House speaker.
- Instead of any single House member being able to force such a vote, now any such motion will have to be introduced by a Republican joined by eight additional GOP co-sponsors.
- The change is the result of a deal struck between House Republican factions in November as the GOP met to renominate House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
The details: The 36-page package formally dissolves the congressional Diversity & Inclusion Office, a longstanding target for House Republicans.
- Funding for the office was already gutted by a government spending bill passed in March with plans to absorb it into a new Office of Talent Management, but Democrats had hoped to revive it if they won back the House majority.
- The rules package also changes the name of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability back to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
- The name was initially changed in the 118th Congress to reflect the flurry of probes Republicans launched into the Biden administration. The incoming Trump administration is expected to face far less scrutiny.
Zoom in: The package also renames the Office of Congressional Ethics – another common GOP target – to the Office of Congressional Conduct.
- It authorizes subpoenas of Attorney General Merrick Garland and other DOJ officials as part of House Republicans' investigations into the Biden family's finances.
- And it sets up votes on a dozen GOP bills implementing strict border security measures, sanctioning the International Criminal Court, requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and more.
The other side: Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, homed in on the fact that the rules would only allow members of the majority party to introduce motions to vacate.
- "Their proposed changes would, for the first time in American history, shield the Speaker from accountability to the entire chamber," he said.
- Of the whole package, he added: "The American people did not vote for whatever the hell this is—and you better believe that Democrats will not let Republicans turn the House of Representatives into a rubber stamp for their extremist policies."
What's next: The House is scheduled to reconvene on Jan. 3 to vote to elect a speaker, swear in its members and finally vote on the rules package.
- A Friday vote on the rules package is not guaranteed, however, as Johnson's skeptics are threatening to deny him the gavel on the first ballot.
Editor's note: This article has been updated with comment from Rep. Jim McGovern.
