“House Republicans Destroying Speaker Accountability” – Jim McGovern Warns of Dysfunctional Future Under New Rules

House Republicans are moving to rewrite Congress’ rules in a way that serves their majority at the expense of functional government, warned House Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern (D-MA) in a scathing 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,” McGovern wrote. “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 warning comes as the GOP’s narrow majority in the House faces challenges, including opposition within its ranks to re-electing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), even as former President Donald Trump throws his support behind him to prevent delays in his election certification.

“First, by injecting partisan extremism into the rules, Republicans are totally destroying the role of Speaker of the House,” McGovern wrote. “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.”

Describing the changes as an “unprecedented anti-democratic move that would fit right in at the Kremlin,” McGovern noted that this comes even as Republicans struggle with one of the most narrowly divided House majorities in history. He argues that this indicates that “the American people want us to work together.”

Furthermore, McGovern criticized the 12 bills outlined by the Rules Committee Republicans for the upcoming session, calling them lacking in provisions that would address workers’ needs. “Nothing to help workers. Nothing to bring down grocery prices. Nothing on lower rent or affordable housing. Silent on inflation & healthcare costs,” he said.

The new rules would also exempt Republicans from allowing amendments from either party, limiting openness and transparency. “So much for openness & transparency,” he added, concluding, “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.”