On 1/9/2023, Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., the House majority leader, said that ending proxy voting would increase collaboration and speed up the voting process. “It’s about making Congress work again where people have to show up and do their jobs in person like everybody else in the real world has to,” Scalise said. “We’re making members of Congress show up to work again,” said Scalise. “For the last two years you’ve had proxy voting, including just a few weeks ago where you had dozens if not over 100 members of Congress voting from a remote location on a $1.7 trillion spending bill that was written in dark of night and dropped on members before they could read it. That is the kind of thing that people are sick of and we need to change.”
A look at some of the key changes Republicans are expected to adopt Monday that will affect floor proceedings and dictate their priorities in the 118th Congress. House rules give lawmakers the ability to remove the speaker from the job through what’s known as a motion to vacate. A majority vote of all House members would be needed for the speaker to be ousted. Reinstating the “Holman Rule”
The Republicans’ rules package calls for the “Holman Rule” to be put back in place. First adopted in 1876, the measure allows amendments to appropriations bills to slash the salaries of or fire specific federal employees, or cut specific programs.
72-hour rule
This provision requires bill text to be released at least 72 hours before a vote on the House floor, giving lawmakers time to read the legislation.
Enforcement of the rule would come after many Republicans decried the circumstances surrounding the $1.7 trillion government spending package, which was voted on by Congress shortly after the text of the mammoth legislation was released.
Rep. Scalise said, “Mr. Speaker we are here to discuss the rules of the house actually debating the rules
package … we saw a lot of debate about this last week at the heart of all of this discussions last week was very clear surely from our side that Washington is broke … we’ve seen many of the problems that families are facing across America created by the things that have come out of this congress signed by president Biden why is inflation running away because spending is out of control because bills appear by dark of night bills that nobody’s read that are thousands of pages long where members aren’t even allowed to give input in committee on the floor to address problems they know their constituents will face if these bills pass and yet the bills are passed because they’re written in rooms behind closed doors by a small number of people not concerned about the consequences that will affect so many millions of people across this nation Mr. speaker for a long time we’ve been saying this needs to change in fact we ran on an agenda to change the way that Washington works to fix this broken system to get our country back on track and we were awarded the majority by the people across this country and so today starts that process of fixing what’s broken in Washington so that Washington can finally start working for the people of this country who are struggling and so let’s start with one basic thing is reopening the people’s house for years the American people were shut out of coming and seeing their government worked in fact with proxy voting which by the way ends in this rules package members of congress have to show up and work again just look at the bill that passed a few weeks ago the omnibus spending bill 1.7 trillions of dollars mostly borrowed from countries like China you look at all of the things that had absolutely nothing to do with the general operations of government that were thrown in that now you can start looking at it today but you surely couldn’t look at it the day of the vote because very few people had the opportunity to read it over four thousand pages dumped by dark of night right before the vote and yes a majority of this congress voted by proxy on that bill they weren’t even here showing up to vote well you know what Americans all across the country have to show up to vote they have to go to their work site they can’t work remotely in fact congress doesn’t work virtually it’s just not set up that way and yet that’s what we’ve seen the last two years committees that don’t even meet in person there are some committees that haven’t had an in-person hearing for two years we end that practice in this rules package where committees actually have to get to work again not only meeting in person but in some cases going out into the field going into the real world places like the border between the united states and Mexico where yes despite the president’s claim there is a crisis at the border and we’ve been talking about it for a long time we’ve been trying to bring legislation
https://facebook.com/HygoNewsUSA/videos/555320373160257/
House passes Rules, no more proxy voting, have to show up & work, 72-hour rule, allows amendments