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A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 7 June 2018

Will Paul Ryan's retirement be a chance to change the House?

By LISA MASCARO here is address what we're
AP Congressional Corre- frustrated about and what
spondent people at home are frus-
WASHINGTON (AP) — trated about," Gottheimer
House Speaker Paul Ryan is told the AP. "How do we
retiring and there's no guar- get the place to work bet-
anteed successor. And ter?"
whichever party emerges Added Reed: "What we're
from the November elec- trying to do is reform the in-
tion in control of the House stitution."
isn't expected to have a Among the ideas in the
big majority. Speaker Project:
It's a recipe for upheaval, —Changing House rules
though one outside group for electing the speaker.
sees a once-in-a-gener- It's now a simple majority,
ation opportunity for law- which almost guarantees
makers to overhaul their that the speaker will come
rules and put Congress on from the majority party. No
a more cooperative foot- Labels wants the require-
ing. ment for a winning vote
"The Speaker Project" is to be five more lawmak-
what the bipartisan group ers than the majority party
calls the idea it's circulating holds, in a nod to bipar-
among House members. tisanship. For example, if
According to a draft of a the majority is split 225-210,
proposal provided to the then the speaker must re-
Associated Press, a small ceive 230 to be elected.
group of Democrats and —Barring a single lawmak-
Republicans could "ex- er from filing a motion de-
ert tremendous leverage" manding a vote of no con-
over the contest for the fidence in the speaker. In-
next speaker. They could stead, a motion could only
band together and con- be filed when a party's full
dition their support for the In this May 16, 2018 file photo, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., with Majority Leader Kevin caucus agrees.
new leader on the promise McCarthy, R-Calif., at right, has a light-hearted exchange with reporters at the start of a news —Evening out membership
of House rules changes to conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. on the House Rules Com-
make governing less polar- Associated Press mittee, which determines
izing. There's already a list of the process for consider-
other proposed changes. which legislation comes to speaker by threatening to changing the rules, which ing House bills and amend-
"We have a perfect storm the floor. withdraw their support at can be done at the start ments on the floor. This
moment," said Nancy Ja- The ideas, however, are any time. For example, the of each new session of the change would give the mi-
cobson, founder of the sure to face resistance. GOP's conservative wing, House, could go a long nority a greater say on the
group No Labels. Neither party would want known as the House Free- way toward a thaw. flow of legislation.
Lawmakers will meet in to loosen the power that dom Caucus, has regularly The idea is gaining the at- Those pushing the changes
private after Election Day comes from having a ma- used its power to block tention of Reps. Tom Reed, say it's not unprecedented
to decide their nominees jority in the 435-member legislation or scuttle talk of R-N.Y., and Josh Got- and that maybe it's time
for speaker. A formal vote House, including the tradi- compromise bills. theimer, D-N.J., the lead- to do things differently,
comes when the new Con- tional hold on the speaker's The caucus helped push Ry- ers of the Problem Solvers given the deep partisan-
gress convenes in January. gavel. And institutional- an's predecessor as speak- Caucus, a group of 48 cen- ship that creates logjams
With a potentially narrow minded lawmakers will er, Rep. John Boehner, R- trist lawmakers, split evenly in Congress and mindful of
party split between Demo- certainly gripe that any Ohio, into early retirement. among Democrats and Re- the ability of a group such
crats and Republicans, a changes that strip away Ryan also has struggled to publicans. Reed and Got- as the Freedom Caucus to
few lawmakers could have majority power would manage his majority when theimer are talking about it control the action.
considerable sway in pick- make the House function the caucus' 30-plus mem- with their members. The speaker's race, they
ing the new leader. more like the Senate, with bers withheld their votes at The usually quiet, go-along- say, provides the opening.
The speaker holds enor- its complex rules that pro- critical moments. get-along centrists are tak- "The system itself is sort of
mous power in deciding tect the minority. To some, it's time for cen- ing a page from the Free- rigged with these rules,"
how the House functions. But as Congress has shown trists to fight back. dom Caucus playbook as Jacobson said. "There's
The speaker essentially in recent years, minor- Jacobson said the system they try to use their votes to one person who has all the
chooses which lawmakers ity factions within the lead- "is just so frozen in place bring about change. power — the speaker."
sit on what committees and er's party can stymie the in dysfunction" and that "What we're trying to do q