The News
Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday reasserted power over a corner of the House that caused problems for his Republicans throughout the last Congress.
The Louisiana Republican chose Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., to chair the powerful Rules Committee, which holds sway over how legislation gets to the House floor. But despite Foxx’s loyalty to leaders, the biggest changes came below the top level: Rep. Brian Jack, R-Ga., will take a Rules seat being vacated by Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., and Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., will take the seat once occupied by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.
Massie ended the Jan. 3 speaker’s election as Johnson’s only opponent after two other skeptics changed their votes, re-electing the speaker on the first ballot. Even before that, however, Massie’s tenure at Rules began to look shaky.
He was one of a conservative trio who joined the powerful committee as a concession from former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and even after McCarthy’s ouster, that Rules Committee bloc effectively forced Johnson to steer many huge bills around the panel by courting Democratic votes.
Griffith is a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, and his appointment appeared designed as a consolation prize to the right wing of the conference. Many Freedom Caucus members had hoped to see another conservative in the Rules trio, Texas Rep. Chip Roy, rise to chairman this year.
Massie told Semafor that he recommended Griffith to Johnson, “because I think Morgan would follow the rules, be least likely to use procedure to get policy.”
Know More
Republicans were concerned about replacing Massie with another Freedom Caucus member who might join Roy and Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., to bottle up legislation on its way to the floor. Griffith’s selection seems to have alleviated those fears.
“Morgan Griffith is an incredibly principled member who I think has the potential to be an incredible rules committee member,” Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., told Semafor.
Foxx, the former chair of the Education and the Workforce Committee, is known for being a disciplinarian and will be this Congress’ sole woman chair in a party that has often struggled to elevate women to senior roles. And Jack is seen as an important liaison between President-elect Donald Trump and House Republicans.
Jack is also among the Republicans who see Griffith as an ally: “He and I were talking Virginia politics yesterday. I’m a good friend of his,” the Georgian told Semafor.
Kadia’s view
He may have a more manageable Rules Committee this Congress, but Johnson isn’t off scot-free.
Freedom Caucus members successfully lobbied to add limits to GOP leaders’ ability to suspend the House rules and pass bills with two-thirds majorities by seeking Democratic support; this month’s House rules package limited such suspension votes to Mondays through Wednesdays.
That means Johnson can pack suspensions onto the floor at the start of the week, but he’ll have to deal with the Rules Committee when running up against many big deadlines. First up: the current government funding patch expires March 14, a Friday.
Room for Disagreement
The X user known as @ringwiss, who has established a healthy following for his in-depth knowledge of congressional procedure, identified a potential loophole for the speaker after the House agreed to limit its suspension votes.
In order to pass a government funding patch on a Friday without needing the Rules Committee to take it up, @ringwiss observed, Johnson would simply … keep following along … have to vote to suspend the rule that limited his ability to hold suspension votes.
“If you have a 2/3 majority in favour of taking up a [funding plan] under suspension, would you not also have a 2/3 majority to suspend this rule?” asked @ringwiss.
Notable
-
The author of the well-respected @ringwiss account was unmasked as a UK economics student by Politico.