Washington, D.C. – Congressman Don Bacon (NE-02) today voted against the rules package as presented by the House Democrats. H. Res 8 – Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the 117th Congress as introduced by Rep. Steny Hoyer (MD-05) dramatically alters the motion to recommit (MTR), which has been a right afforded to the minority side for over 100 years.
“Some House Democrat leaders are nervous they only have a super-slim majority in the House and have decided to change the rules to shore up their power instead of working on a bipartisan approach to addressing the needs of all Americans,” said Rep. Bacon. “People have lost their jobs, businesses are closed, and a large bipartisan group of us proved we can work together to address these issues.”
In addition, H. Res 8 exempts certain legislation from PAYGO requirements to facilitate the consideration of costly proposal like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. PAYGO requires new proposals to be “budget neutral” or offset with savings from existing funds.
“Some have said that previous Republicans have exempted certain proposals from PAYGO requirements, and this is no different, but I was not a member of Congress then and I believe we should exercise fiscal restraint,” said Rep. Bacon.
Rep. Bacon also indicated concerns with other items included in the package:
Carries forward proxy voting and remote committee proceedings.
Promotes the abuse of committee oversight authority by empowering committee chairs to unilaterally reissue subpoenas prior to populating committees or adopting committee rules, allowing for the continued litigious obsession with the Trump Administration.
All terminology based on female and male gender designations is removed, which is another step toward eliminating legal distinctions between men and women, such as father, mother, daughter, son, etc. The term “awomen” was used at the end of a prayer, when amen is not even a gendered word.
