Break the gridlock
Our country is badly divided politically. The extremes of the parties are strongly entrenched and compromise is viewed as a sign of weakness. With that said, it is certainly unreasonable to expect agreement on anything where one side gets everything and the other side gets nothing. In congress, that spells gridlock and right now, gridlock is written into the rules.
No Labels is a non-partisan citizens’ group focused on promoting cooperation and problem solving by elected officials in Washington. Formed in 2010, No Labels has put forward a number of initiatives intended to support and reinforce bipartisanship and moderation in Washington. No Labels originally developed The Speaker Project which is a set of rules changes to improve the functioning of the House. Aligned with No Labels, a group of 48
House members, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, form the House Problem Solvers Caucus. NJ Seventh District Congressman Leonard Lance is a member of the Caucus.
The House Speaker has near dictatorial power under current rules. The Speaker hands out committee assignments and decides what bills will be considered on the floor of the House.
Issues are only considered based on what is acceptable for the majority party. Also, bills on which the members of the majority would prefer NOT to vote are also not allowed to the floor as protection. These might include bills that have strong public support. Throughout all of this the minority party is essentially closed out of the process.
The Speaker can be removed by a process known as a Motion To Vacate. The previous speaker, John Boehner was forced to resign under this process by one conservative fellow republican. Recently, moderate Republican members have threatened a Motion To Vacate in order to force Speaker Ryan to permit consideration of immigration legislation. In spite of this, a floor vote was not achieved.
The Motion To Vacate was intended to be an extraordinary measure. It should not be necessary to threaten a Motion To Vacate in order for the House to perform its normal routine function. And a single member should not be able to bring forward such a dramatic action without a reasonable level of support.
On Wednesday of this week, the House Problem Solvers introduced a set of rules changes that would seek to increase bipartisanship and break the logjam. It would reduce the power of the House Speaker to unilaterally control the agenda on the floor of the House. These rules changes would also curtail the ability of a small minority to force their agenda on the rest of the House. The initiative is called the “Break the Gridlock” rules package.
How will these new rules change all this? Two main areas would be affected most strongly.
1. To move forward with a Motion to Vacate, it would be necessary to have the public support from a minimum 1/3 of House members. This will ensure that the Motion To Vacate is used in an appropriate manner.
2. The power of the Speaker to control which bills are considered will be reduced. New standards will provide for automatic consideration and debate of bills that have strong bipartisan support. As mentioned above, today the Speaker only allows bills to come to the floor if they enjoy a majority of support from the party in the majority.
In the coming election, it is highly likely that the House will be controlled by a very small majority. If implemented, this rules change has the potential to significantly alter the way the House does business. Power will be pushed downward from the few powerful politicians to the rank and file. More bills will be brought forward for debate and floor votes. House members will have to go “on the record” on controversial issues and we, the people, will know where they stand.
Americans who favor bipartisanship in congress should see this as a very positive step toward getting congress to better reflect the will of the people. Whether you are conservative or liberal or in the middle, this initiative will help break the gridlock that prevents congress from functioning. It is imperative that all citizens learn about the “Break the Gridlock” initiative, and let their candidates for the House of Representatives, both the incumbent AND the challenger, know that this rules change is favored. And if you see No Labels as a desirable organization, go to www.nolabels.org and join.
— Steve Barratt, NoLabels.org