House Republicans are moving to rewrite the rules of Congress to serve their own majority at the expense of any functional government, House Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern (D-MA) warned in a furious thread posted to X on Wednesday evening.
"Today the @HouseGOP put out their rules for the next two years of Congress. If you thought their dysfunction, disorganization, and disarray was bad before, buckle up, because it’s about to get even worse," wrote McGovern. "You’d think House Republicans might look at their failures and try to change course by working with Democrats, as we’ve been asking, to address the major problems facing our country. You’d think. But you’d be wrong."
This comes at a moment when the GOP's razor-thin House majority is set to face difficulties in even re-electing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to the gavel in the first place, as at least some members appear opposed — and Trump is endorsing him in a bid to prevent his own election certification from being delayed.
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"First, by injecting partisan extremism into the rules, Republicans are totally destroying the role of Speaker of the House," wrote McGovern. "Their proposed changes would, for the first time in history, shield the Speaker from accountability to the entire chamber by making it so that only Republicans can move to vacate the chair. This makes it clear that they have no intention of working together to find common ground. Instead of electing a Speaker of the House, they decided to elect a Speaker of the Republican Conference — held hostage by their most extreme members."
This "unprecedented anti-democratic move that would fit right in at the Kremlin," he wrote, comes even as Republicans face one of the most razor-thin majorities in history — an indication that "the American people want us to work together."
Meanwhile, he wrote, the 12 bills the Rules Committee Republicans laid out for this session contain "nothing to help workers."
"Nothing to bring down grocery prices. Nothing on lower rent or affordable housing. Silent on inflation & healthcare costs," he said.
And the rules would exempt them from amendments, from either party.
"So much for openness & transparency," he fumed, adding: "The American people did not vote for whatever the hell this is — and you better believe that Democrats will not let Republicans turn the House of Representatives into a rubber stamp for their extreme policies."
