House Republican seeks to change motion-to-vacate rule that brought down McCarthy
Washington — A House Republican lawmaker has moved to make it harder to oust the House speaker, weeks after Rep. Kevin McCarthy was forced out of the role earlier this month in a historic vote.
On Monday, Rep. Max Miller of Ohio introduced a resolution to change the threshold needed to bring a vote of no confidence in the House speaker, known as a motion to vacate the chair. Miller's resolution would require the support of at least 112 members from either the majority or the minority party to force a no-confidence vote.
"After being paralyzed for three weeks, one thing is crystal clear: We cannot be beholden to the whims and personal grudges of a handful of people. Americans want us to work hard to advance commonsense, conservative policies, not play petty politics," Miller said in a statement. "Changing this rule is a simple step toward accomplishing that goal and keeping the House on track."
McCarthy, a California Republican, paved the way for his own dismissal in January as he sought enough support to become speaker, making a deal with far-right Republicans that a single member could trigger a no-confidence vote.
That backfired on McCarthy when Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida finally made good on his threat to introduce a resolution to remove him from the leadership role after McCarthy relied heavily on the votes of House Democrats to temporarily avert a government shutdown.
Gaetz, seven other Republicans and all the House Democrats voted to remove McCarthy, making it the first time in U.S. history a House speaker was ousted by such a motion.
The House then spiraled into chaos for weeks as Republicans failed to coalesce around a new speaker. Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana finally won the speaker's gavel with unanimous support of Republicans last week.
Johnson, as well as several other Republicans, seem receptive to raising the threshold.
"I think we're going to change it," Johnson told Fox News' Sean Hannity last week.