The House Republicans released their proposed package of rules changes for the 112th Congress. These changes will be considered during the continued organization meeting of the House Republican Conference in early January and on the opening day of the 112th Congress.
Honoring the Pledge to America
As promised in the Pledge, members will not be able to introduce a bill or joint resolution without a “statement citing as specifically as practicable the power or powers granted to Congress in the Constitution to enact” it. This will serve to refocus members of Congress, with every bill they introduce, on the Constitution that they take an oath to support and defend.
A new standard for transparency and openness
For the first time under the House rules, “in electronic format” will be the standard by which are made bills available. Placing bills and other texts online for the American people to see will increase public scrutiny and accountability and yield a better legislative process.
Transparency and openness in the committees
In the new Congress, Speaker-designate Boehner has vowed to restore bill-writing power to the committees.
Committees will be required to file activity reports twice annually, up from the current one report per Congress. According to the rules, “such report shall include —separate sections summarizing the legislative and oversight activities of that committee…, a summary of the actions taken and recommendations made with respect to the oversight plans…, a summary of any additional oversight activities undertaken by that committee and any recommendations made or actions taken thereon.” This will give the public an easy mechanism to judge the performance of each committee.
Ethics in the House
The House rules package preserves the Office of Congressional Ethics with no changes made to its structure. The language included in the rules package is identical to that included in the rules for the 111th Congress.
The package also carries forth a rule that prohibits former members of Congress who are now registered lobbyists from using the member exercise facilities (the gym).
Reforms to the budget process
* The “Gephardt Rule” will be repealed, which has been used to avoid accountability by providing for an automatic increase in the debt limit upon the adoption of a new budget resolution.
* As the Pledge to America promised to “Reform the Budget Process to Focus on Long-Term Challenges,” the new House rules places a limitation on long-term spending.
* Cut-as-you-go will be included in the House rules.
* Under new House rules, each appropriations bill will be required to have a “spending reduction account.”
* Highway funding, with some exceptions, will now be treated as other general spending and therefore be subject to any member attempt to reduce the spending.
Additional reforms to House rules
Delegates and resident commissioners (those not representing states) will not be able to vote in the committee of the whole.
The rules package reinstates a six-year term limit on committee chairmen, one of the central congressional reforms of the 1994 Contract with America that was eliminated under Democratic control of the House.
While the first ten bill numbers have traditionally been reserved for the majority party, the new rules provide that bill numbers 11 through 20 are reserved as a courtesy for the minority party.
When in the “committee of the whole,” the Chair will be given the option to reduce the time for voting from 5 to 2 minutes if he or she finds it appropriate.
In a change to the staff deposition authority for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a member will have to be present when staff is deposing a witness.
(source VSBA)
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