House Rules Package Could Curb Minority’s Power, End Term Limits for Chairmen

[babylonsister]

House Rules Package Could Curb Minority’s Power, End Term Limits for Chairmen
By Alan K. Ota, CQ Staff


An early partisan skirmish is likely in the House next week, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to move a rules package that would curb the GOP’s ability to derail legislation through a parliamentary maneuver it has used over the past two years.

Democrats may also end the current three-term limit for committee chairmen — a limit adopted by Republicans when they took over the House in 1995 and retained in the House rules adopted by Democrats when they regained the majority in the 110th Congress.

A senior House Democratic aide said Pelosi was expected to discuss the two proposed rules changes with Democrats on Monday and had not made a final decision on moving them.

Still, Democratic leaders are taking a hard look at preventing the minority party from scoring easy political points with motions to recommit a bill to committee with instructions to make contentious language changes and then report it back to the House “promptly.” In the outgoing Congress, “promptly’’ has meant an indefinite hold, because committees were not willing to adopt poison-pill amendments sponsored by the minority.

more...

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000003002254

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Good for the house

keeping the GOP from gumming up the works. Now will the Senate please focus on legislation rather than Roland Burris, please?

[babylonsister]

2. GREAT for the House! Isn't this what people wanted to see, some

pushback against the rethugs?

[wryter2000]

3. It sure is

I wish we could do something similar in the Senate. That's where the real obstacles are going to come up.

[babylonsister]

4. Hey, it's early. Who knows what they might have up their sleeves. nt

[Donnachaidh]

5. oh please Nancy -- shut the minority dweebs down.

Start slapping them back hard. Start pointing fingers back at them while the cameras are rolling and place the economic blame where it SHOULD be -- the puke party.

::woohoo: :woohoo: :popcorn: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. The Nation: "Stop Senator No" or how to stop the Senate roadblocks

The Nation: "Stop Senator No" by WILLIAM GREIDER

If the Democratic Party intends to get serious about governing, it can start by disabling the Republican filibuster that gives the minority party in the Senate a virtual veto over anything it wants to kill. The chatter in Washington assumes that since Democrats failed to gain a sixty-seat majority, there's nothing they can do. But that's not true. Democrats can change the rules and remove a malignant obstacle from the path of our new president. Given the emergency conditions facing the nation, why should Mitch McConnell and his right-wing colleagues get to decide what the Senate may vote on?



This proposition disturbs the happy talk about the "postpartisan" politics Barack Obama has inspired. But let's get real. McConnell is making nice for the moment, having survived his re-election scare in Kentucky. But he will use the filibuster to stymie the new Democratic administration whenever it looks to him like a political opportunity for Republicans. Thanks mainly to McConnell, the 110th Congress of 2007-08 set a new record--138 cloture motions to limit debate and head off filibusters. That is double the level of ten years ago. Who really believes McConnell will voluntarily give up his starring role as Senator No?

Last year, Democrats had a fifty-one-vote majority, but majority leader Harry Reid lamented their inability to overcome the minority. "The problem we have is that we don't have many moderate Republicans," Reid explained. In the new Congress there will be even fewer. Elections and retirements have left the surviving GOP caucus even more extreme in its ideology. The threat of a filibuster is its lever of power.

Democrats, on the other hand, have lost their last excuse for inaction. For years, they have blamed Bush's veto or the narrowly divided Senate for their weakness. Both are kaput. Now the Dems have the ability to step up and change the situation. But will they have the courage? Many of them like to hide behind Senate tradition, claiming it would be inappropriate to alter the rules. Nonsense. If Democrats allow the sixty-vote filibuster to survive, it is because they want to keep it as a convenient way to avoid taking responsibility.


Snip.......... he continues on how to do it......



http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081229/greider

[babylonsister]

7. If the House doing this is considered a baby step, I'll take it. nt

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. I'll take it too.... I think the Senate is the problem though

I nominated your thread because of the progress it might bring.

[babylonsister]

9. I hope the Senate follows suit, and thanks. I think this is

good news for a change.

[annabanana]

10. "McConnell is making nice". . . . . . ?

That's not what I heard. I heard he's looking for serious opposition to the stimulus package, for starters.

We should just as well face it headlong. If a hand is reached out to this crowd, they'll bite it right off.

I heartily support any effort to unblock the Senate. I say that there should be no more "proforma" filibusters. If the Repugs are determined to roadblock the agenda, they should be forced to actually DO IT!

Nothing will make it clearer to the American public just what obstructionists these bozos are than to make them stay up all night, miss meals and showers, read from the phone book all sweaty and disheveled for days and days to keep poor children from getting SChip funds. . or to keep money from going to distressed homeowners... or to stop public works projects that would bring serious jobs out to a hungry, nervous America.

The public is ON OUR SIDE on every important issue that will be coming up in this Congress. This is the best way to make sure that they know this!

[davidpdx]

13. IC, great article

Thanks for posting it. I'll follow the link and finish reading it.

[rockymountaindem]

17. I'll be impressed if they have the chutzpah to do that, but I doubt they will

On the other hand, the Obama administration cannot afford to lose any early battles over things like the stimulus package or the EFCA. Maybe he will somehow force Reid's hand. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[Hissyspit]

11. kick - important nt

[OhioChick]

12. K&R

:kick:

[Laelth]

14. Interesting. Thanks. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[camera obscura]

15. Come on Pelosi!

earn some cred already...

[babylonsister]

16. This could be the change... we shall see. nt