Republican proposal would require bills not approved by committee receive two-thirds House vote to pass, up from a majority
Most major Democratic legislation this Congress was not been approved by committee first.
Context
Whenever a bill or resolution is introduced in Congress, it is referred to a committee. The House has 23 committees on policy areas including agriculture, education, foreign affairs, homeland security, and small businesses. A bill or resolution can also be referred to multiple committees, if it straddles two or more policy areas.
Most legislation originates in committee, before potentially receiving a vote in the full House or Senate. If the committee chair grants something a vote, it receives an up-or-down vote in the committee, which is always controlled by the same party that holds the chamber’s majority — currently Democrats for both the House and Senate.
However, not all legislation works this way. It’s complicated, but the short version is that House leadership, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA12), can essentially bypass committees for a full House vote if they want.
Prominent examples of this so far in 2021 include the impeachment of former President Donald Trump, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the Enhanced Background Checks Act for firearms, the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act, and retroactively removing the 1982 deadline for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.
However, other prominent House-passed legislation this year was indeed approved by committee first. Perhaps the most prominent example is the Washington, D.C. Admission Act to make the District of Columbia the 51st state, which passed the House Oversight and Reform Committee on April 14 before passing the entire chamber on April 22.
What the proposal does
A new proposal says “enough,” and would require that any bill or resolution which hasn’t been approved by committee receive two-thirds House votes in order to pass, rather than a simple majority.
Democrats currently control about 51.1 percent of the chamber, so in practice this move would kill most — if not all — major Democratic legislation in the House.
It was introduced on March 18 as H.Res. 255, by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY22). The resolution does not appear to have another title.
What supporters say
Supporters argue the proposal would compel legislation to go through “regular order” for passage, with subject-matter specialists studying the issue and approving a bill first, rather than leadership just unilaterally and centrally deciding what the entire chamber should vote upon.
“This resolution is about good, transparent government,” Rep. Tenney wrote in a letter to colleagues that her office shared with GovTrack Insider. “This year, House Democrats forced a vote on at least 17 major pieces of legislation that violated regular order and prohibited members from having a discussion or making changes to key legislation in the appropriate committees of subject-matter jurisdiction.”
“The American people expect Congress to conduct its business with integrity, and a part of this means ensuring bills are fairly and transparently debated by the committees of jurisdiction before they are brought up for a vote,” Rep. Tenney continued. “Legislation that bypasses debate and scrutiny should be non-controversial and bipartisan.”
What opponents say
Opponents may counter: if a certain bill was destined to pass the House anyway, why should it necessarily be forced to go through a committee first?
Indeed the frequent criticism that the status quo gives the Speaker too much power could theoretically be flipped the other way around. Namely, that if this Republican proposal were to pass, individual committee chairs would be given too much power.
Potentially, a committee chair could single-handedly refuse to hold a committee vote on a bill that would otherwise have commanded majority support in the entire House — if only it had been able to receive a vote there.
Odds of passage
The resolution has not yet attracted any cosponsors. It awaits a potential vote in the House Rules Committee — and don’t count on House leadership bypassing the committee this time.
This Republican idea of raising voting thresholds from simple majorities to two-thirds is gaining some traction on the right. GovTrack Insider recently covered a constitutional amendment proposal to require any vote admitting a new state be approved by two-thirds of both the Senate and House.
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This article was written by GovTrack Insider staff writer Jesse Rifkin.
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