HOUSE RULES CHANGES
Today, the House Select Committee on Rules convened at 11:00am to consider amendments to the House's Permanent Rules of Order. Yet again, the Republican supermajority has changed the rules at the last minute.
On behalf of the Democratic Caucus, I introduced four amendments. We sought to: extend each member's time limit for debate on the House floor from five to fifteen minutes; require the Speaker to appoint all members to standing committees, regardless of being elected by a local government or in a special election; and, require committee chairs to allow the peaceful display of signs or placards in committee hearings. All of my proposed amendments were unfortunately defeated with a single voice vote on all amendments.
However, the Rules Committee did adopt rules amendments offered by a Republican member who clearly acted on behalf of the House Republican Caucus and benefited from a prior private agreement among his party members on the Committee. The Republicans adopted a slate of amendments to: remove the requirement for the Speaker to recognize the members who first rises to speak on the House floor; punish members ruled out of order by limited their ability to speak on the House floor; extend the prohibition for guests on the House floor to thirty minutes after session adjourns; prohibit visual aids or props in any committee room or House floor at any time; prohibit members from approaching the dais and speaker's rostrum without permission; add limits on each member's time for debate on the House floor; allows leadership to enact time limits on any member's bill before the House; limit comments during Welcoming and Honoring to one minute; limit members' presentation of bills or resolutions before a committee to five minutes; and, require all parliamentary inquiries and points of order to be first presented to party leaders on the House floor.
