Group of Texas Republicans in U.S. House want to change the rules for removing a speaker – By Matthew Choi (Texas Tribune) / Oct 6, 2023
The members are sick of the leverage the rule has had over the conference, saying it pushed leadership into the hands of the most extreme right-wing members.
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WASHINGTON — After a single Republican member of Congress instigated Kevin McCarthy’s removal as House speaker, a handful of Texas Republicans are trying to change the rules to make it impossible to happen again.
Under rules negotiated in January during McCarthy’s tumultuous first election, any member of the House can motion to vacate the chair — a procedural move that will force a vote to remove the speaker. That was how the process worked until 2019, when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi significantly raised the threshold. U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, an ultraconservative Florida Republican with a notorious antipathy toward McCarthy, launched the vote this week to remove McCarthy, leading to the first time in American history that a speaker was actually ousted by the measure.
But some Texas Republicans are sick of the leverage the rule has had over the conference, saying it has pushed leadership into the hands of the most extreme right-wing members of the party.
“I voted NO on the rule in January due to the 1 member threshold to vacate the chair. After electing a Speaker, a rule change needs to be the first order of business,” U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, posted on social media Friday morning. Gonzales also said in January he opposed the rules package out of concern that an accompanying agreement to lower federal spending could impact defense funding.
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