It’s Tuesday, the traditional day for elections and for our pause-and-consider newsletter on politics and policy.

[link removed]
[link removed]
Photo by Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA

THE NEW RULES OF THE HOUSE
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews ([link removed])
Correspondent

It took 15 votes and a full screenplay’s worth of chamber drama, but last week, House Republicans managed to elect a speaker ([link removed]) .

This week — so far — has moved much more quickly; the House adopted its rules ([link removed]) by a vote of 220-213.

We can now talk a little more about how the House will operate in the new session and what’s in those rules, which were sculpted by those who initially voted against Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
[link removed]
Watch the segment in the player above.
The full House rules package is 55 pages long. You can read the document here ([link removed]) .

It contains some significant changes, as you’ll see in the highlights below.

Weakening the House speaker.
* Challenging the speaker. The new rules allow any member of the House to raise a motion to “vacate the chair,” or remove the speaker. That would lead to a full House vote ([link removed]) . This procedural tactic has only been used — meaning formally moved and voted on —once in U.S. history, in 1910 ([link removed]) .

Block tax increases, encourage spending cuts.
* Income tax increases require a three-fifths vote of the House. That would mean that 261 House members, versus the usual 218, would have to support any tax increase for it to pass.
* Allow amendments that cut spending in general. During spending debates, House Republicans are allowing amendments that cut spending to be considered as a large group.
* Limit short-term spending. Any appropriations items that do not have a separate authorization (meaning they have not been specifically authorized by Congress) must not be increased.
* Limit long-term spending. The rules are set up to prevent any bill estimated to spend more than $2.5 billion in any four consecutive fiscal years in a coming decade.
* “Cut as you go.” A block on increases in mandatory spending. Mandatory spending essentially means long-term federal programs that have their own funding formulas in law. They are not funded by Congress every year. Take Social Security as one very large example. Republicans’ rules block any bill that raises spending in mandatory programs in a long-term way. They are requiring accompanying spending cuts for any increase.


A new measure for judging bills.
* Calculate the effect on inflation. Bills that have a significant effect on the economy at large must be evaluated for how much they could affect inflation.

Making the House more understandable, transparent and efficient.
* Faster voting. The House is speeding up its voting. Now, any vote after the initial one can be as short as two minutes, instead of the previous minimum of five minutes. (The presiding officer can still make it longer if they choose.) Why does this matter? Those who ardently pushed to reshape the rules are hoping for a House that has more floor debate and takes many more votes. The idea is that more members will get the chance to propose amendments — potentially an avalanche of them — to legislation. All of those votes take time. Shortening the length of each means there could be room for more debate or more amendments. In addition, this moves in the opposite direction of COVID-related policies which, at various points, allowed for extra time for voting.
* More time to read the bills. Bills are not to come for a vote until at least 72 hours after members have had the chance to see them. Do note: This rule has existed in the past, but members of Congress could simply override it with a two-thirds vote. They retain that option still.
* You must be present to vote. The rules package eliminates proxy voting, which was put in place in the House ([link removed]) at the start of the pandemic.
* Bills must come with a statement of a single purpose. Though this rule does not say a bill must *have* a single purpose. Only that it come with such a statement.


Some notable committee changes.
* New subcommittee on COVID. A newly established subcommittee on the coronavirus will have two years to file a report on the origins of the disease and how the government handled the pandemic, including decisions to close schools.
* Ethics changes. Major changes are coming to the bipartisan Office of Congressional Ethics, which is an independent body that reviews ethics complaints and sends findings to the House. In general, the rules make it harder for this group to operate. Republicans have imposed term limits, which will have the effect of removing all but one Democrat from the board. And the new rules significantly limit the group’s ability to hire staff — to within the first 30 days of Congress. Separately, a new bipartisan task force will spring out of these rules, one directed to review House Ethics rules.
* New names. These names flip back and forth depending on which party is in power. With Republicans in charge, the Committee on Oversight and Reform will now be the Committee on Oversight and Accountability. The Committee on Education and Labor will now be the Committee on Education and Workforce.

WE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Are politics dividing your family or community? We may reach out to you as part of our reporting for Judy Woodruff’s “America at a Crossroads” project ([link removed]) . Please fill out our form here ([link removed]) .

More on politics from our coverage:
* Watch: Over the weekend, President Joe Biden made his first visit to the southern border ([link removed]) since taking office.
* One Big Question: Border Patrol officers and migrant advocates made appeals to the White House for long-term fixes at the southern border. How likely are we to see comprehensive immigration reform ([link removed]) from Congress?
* A Closer Look: The true story behind one of the most damaging spies ([link removed]) in American history.
* Perspectives: U.S. Navy veteran Mark Frerichs was kidnapped and held hostage by Taliban forces for more than two years. He described his experience in his first TV interview ([link removed]) since being freed.

HOW A SMALL NEWSPAPER ‘SMELLED A FAKE’
[link removed]
Watch the segment in the player above.
By Ian Couzens, @iancouzenz ([link removed])
Associate Producer, Politics

As the 118th Congress begins, scrutiny mounts for one New York congressman.

Newly sworn-in Republican Rep. George Santos, who’s admitted to lying ([link removed]) about his credentials, misled voters about his family history, his resume and his education, all of which was detailed in a New York Times story ([link removed]) last month.

But Santos had already been elected by the time national news outlets picked up the story. The North Shore Leader, a small newspaper in Long Island, broke the scandal ([link removed]) before the November election.

Publisher Grant Lally told the PBS NewsHour ([link removed]) that The North Shore Leader and others tracking Santos’ claims “all smelled a fake” and started looking through Santos’ campaign finance reports.

“We saw a lot there that looked fraudulent, really over-the-top fraudulent,” he said.

Lally said it was “very disappointing” that other outlets didn’t pick up the paper’s reporting until after the election. He added that it was a busy election year, including a highly contested governor’s race that dominated the news cycle as well as other open congressional races in neighboring districts.

“So a lot of the media got distracted in looking at really the bigger race, not the local races,” he said.

#POLITICSTRIVIA
By Ali Schmitz, @SchmitzMedia ([link removed])
Politics Producer

Years before becoming House speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy won a few thousand dollars off a scratch-off lottery ticket in his home state of California. He used part of his winnings to start a small business while attending college.

Our question: What type of small business did McCarthy launch?

Send your answers to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.

Last week, we asked: What was the greatest number of voting rounds before a House speaker was elected?

The answer: 133 ([link removed]) . According to the House historian, it took two months — and 133 ballots — for Nathaniel Prentice Banks to become speaker in 1855.

Congratulations to our winners: Amanda Payne and John Cleveland!

Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.
[link removed]
Want more news and analysis in your inbox?
Explore all of the PBS NewsHour's newsletters ([link removed]) .
[link removed]
[link removed]

============================================================
Copyright © 2023 WETA, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
3620 South 27th Street
Arlington, VA 22206

** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
** update subscription preferences ([link removed])