By
As the top Senate Republican for nearly two decades, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has learned to respect the differences between Congress’ two chambers. The Kentucky Republican doesn’t much like it when the House gives the Senate advice on how to operate, and so McConnell doesn’t tell the House how it should conduct its business, either.
There are, however, occasional exceptions. Politico reported:
“I hope whoever the next speaker is gets rid of the motion to vacate,” the minority leader said Wednesday afternoon. He added that it makes the job “impossible.” ... As if to verbally underline his point, McConnell repeated his House counsel: “I hope whoever emerges insists on getting rid of the motion to vacate.”
The GOP’s Senate leader isn’t the only one thinking along these lines. Semafor also reported:
As they look to pick their next speaker, some moderate Republicans are pushing for a major rule change to make sure Kevin McCarthy’s successor will be harder to topple. Their demand: Do away with the clause that lets any single member call a vote to remove the House’s leader from power — a procedural time bomb they warn could blow up the conference again unless it’s defused.
I’m mindful of the fact that for much of the public, seeing the phrase “motion to vacate the chair” is utterly meaningless — typical voters don’t much care about legislative procedures — but as Kevin McCarthy can attest, it’s proven to be quite important.
Under the rules of the current Congress, as approved by House Republicans in early January, one member can force a vote on whether to fire a sitting House speaker. If a majority votes for the incumbent’s ouster, then the speaker is fired, and members have to choose a new one.
McCarthy fought tooth and nail to prevent this from happening, but in his desperation to get the speaker’s gavel, he caved to far-right members who wanted this threat hanging over his head.
The system worked exactly as intended: When McCarthy disappointed some of the extremists in his conference, they turned on him, exploited the motion-to-vacate opportunity, and ultimately forced him from his post.
As the dust settles on the dramatic developments, a growing number of Republicans have a simple plea: Change the rule so McCarthy’s successor can better do the job.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, for example, said he won’t support any candidate for speaker “until there is a commitment to reform the motion to vacate.” The Florida Republican added, “No one can govern effectively while being threatened by fringe hostage takers.” Similarly, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York said, “That needs to go. That rule needs to change as part of any choice for speaker.” Republican Rep. Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota said something similar on CNBC.
The Republican Main Street Caucus, which includes several members from competitive districts, condemned the current motion-to-vacate rule as a “chokehold on this body.”
For the record, Gimenez, Lawler, Armstrong and literally every member of the Republican Main Street Caucus voted to approve the current rules in January. They’ve apparently changed their minds after having seen the results of the system they helped implement.
McCarthy himself also appears to support an overhaul, despite negotiating the same rules that were used against him.
In theory, as the GOP majority in the House chooses new leaders, members could also approve a new rules package for the remainder of the current Congress. But in practice, Republicans would find themselves right back where they were in January: Right-wing members want the motion-to-vacate rules to remain unchanged because it gives them leverage over the next speaker.
Or put another way, some of the conference’s radical wing saw this week’s chaos as a feature, not a bug. These GOP members won’t accept a change because they see the status quo as working well — not for McCarthy, of course, but for themselves.
Republicans could try turning to Democrats for some votes, but the minority has little incentive to help Republicans clean up their own mess, and Democrats would likely ask for quite a bit in exchange.
Watch this space.