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.
