Three trends of Republican legislation introduced in 2021

As Bob Dylan sang in Like a Rolling Stone, “When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.” Well, at least for the moment, Republicans don’t control the House, Senate, or presidency. Perhaps as a result, party members are introducing some new and unprecedented types of legislation this year.

New bills are introduced in Congress daily, but entirely novel categories of bills are something different entirely. Tentative early polling projects Republicans may likely regain control of one or both congressional chambers in the 2022 midterm elections. Yet in 2021, while they’re tentatively in the congressional minority, here are three new trends of Republican legislation which have largely flown under the radar.

Raising the thresholds for legislation to pass

Democrats hold the barest of majorities: Vice President Kamala Harris can break a tie in the 50–50 Senate, while her party maintains a bare 51.1 percent majority in the House. Recognizing that Democrats can pass some of their agenda by a mere one vote, Republicans have moved to increase the thresholds for enacting several different types of policies.

For example, most Democrats want to add Puerto Rico and/or the District of Columbia as new states, presumably adding more Democratic members to Congress, which is especially likely for D.C. Admitting a new state to the U.S. currently requires simple majorities in both the House and Senate, but Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA4) has proposed a constitutional amendment proposal raising that to two-thirds.

It also currently requires simple majorities for Congress to raise taxes, but Rep. Mark Green (R-TN7) has introduced another constitutional amendment which would raise that to three-fifths.

Yet another Republican proposal from Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY22) — this one a bill, not a constitutional amendment — would require legislation that bypasses the usual House committee process, instead just being immediately voted on up-or-down by the entire House, to pass by two-thirds for potential enactment.

Then again, the Senate filibuster de facto requires 60 votes for passage, rather than a simple majority. If Republicans do retake the chamber with somewhere between 51 and 59 senators, it seems likely that they would switch their position and oppose these very same bills that they’re introducing now. At that point, they’d want fewer barriers — not more — to get legislation out of the Senate.

Impeaching more people than just the president

Conservative media accused Democrats of being too impeachment-happy when it came to former President Donald Trump. He’s the only president in American history impeached not once but twice by the House, which was controlled both times by Democrats.

But even Fox News would acknowledge that Democrats only tried to impeach Trump. In 2021, though, Republicans have tried to impeach Joe Biden and a number of his administration’s figures.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC5) has introduced a resolution to impeach Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his Afghanistan decisions, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ5) introduced one to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for failing to secure the Mexican border, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO3) introduced one to impeach Vice President Kamala Harris for “betrayal of the public trust,” which Boebert defines as Harris doing her job carrying out Biden Administration policies.

Finally, there’s Biden himself. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA14) introduced a resolution to impeach Biden on his first full day in office, based on things he did back when he was vice president several years earlier. Since then, additional resolutions to impeach Biden — on other charges that have arisen since his inauguration — have been introduced by Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH7), by Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX14), by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO3), and by Rep. Marjorie Greene (R-GA14) again and again and again.

Repealing rules and regulations, no matter what they are

For decades now, Republicans have been the more deregulatory party while Democrats have been the more regulation-friendly party. Yet Republicans’ attempts to limit or repeal government edicts were always fairly specific: let’s get rid of this particular rule, or that particular regulation. In 2021, though, they’ve perhaps never been more general.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX10) introduced the One In, Two Out Act, which would require a government agency to repeal two existing regulations in order to create a single new one. Not to be outdone, Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL8) introduced the Government Red-Tape Reduction Act, which goes a step further by requiring the repeal of three existing regulations for each new one. (Nobody seems to have yet taken up the mantle of a “four repeals for each new regulation” bill.)

No further specificity exists within either proposal. It doesn’t matter which regulations would be repealed, exactly — perhaps even ones that the lead sponsors, despite their overall focus on limited government, might even support. Just the overarching idea that something is getting repealed is good enough.

Why does this matter?

So, why does all this matter?

Well, if Republicans retake the House and/or Senate in the 2022 midterm elections, this could provide a sense of how they might approach governing once they recapture a congressional majority.

It may also tell us something about what kinds of bills Democrats would introduce if they’re back in the minority. For example, impeachments galore towards officials in a future Republican administration, or more procedural bills attempting to make it harder to pass bills by the Republicans.

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This article was written by GovTrack Insider staff writer Jesse Rifkin.

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