Hakeem Jeffries pitches coalition governing in the House, and major changes to the rules

Oct 06, 2023

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries isn’t just talking about changing the motion to vacate.

The New York Democrat wants to change the House rules to keep broadly popular legislation moving through the House and deemphasize the power of the small group of hard-line conservative members with sizable control over the GOP conference.

In an op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday, Jeffries pitched a “reform of the rules of the House” to allow Republicans and Democrats to “govern in a pragmatic fashion.”

“The House should be restructured to promote governance by consensus and facilitate up-or-down votes on bills that have strong bipartisan support,” Jeffries wrote.

Pointing to the three hard-line conservatives on the House Rules Committee, he pitched a path for consensus legislation that couldn’t be blocked by what he called “a small handful of extreme members” when large swaths of the House support a bill.

“In short, the rules of the House should reflect the inescapable reality that Republicans are reliant on Democratic support to do the basic work of governing. A small band of extremists should not be capable of obstructing that cooperation,” writes Jeffries.

One path forward toward this is a proposal made by the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress to convene a legislative process task force to discuss rules changes to “reciprocated consideration for widely supported, bipartisan legislation,” as outlined in the panel’s report on fostering collaboration and civility in Congress.

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