Congress

House GOP rule proposals spotlight battle between conservatives and leadership allies

Published

2 years ago

November 13, 2024

House Republicans are primed for a nasty fight over their internal rules this week.

A review of the 20 amendments submitted to the current rules, first reported by Blue Light News, indicate an ongoing clash between conservatives, who are looking to strip more power from leadership, and other members who want to see disruptive GOP lawmakers punished.

The amendments do not include proposed changes to the rules governing how to oust a speaker, known as a motion to vacate, though that doesn’t mean that fight is over. Currently, one member can trigger a vote to boot a speaker, and leadership and many House Republicans want to raise that threshold. Debate over that rule will likely reignite before the full House speakership vote on Jan. 3, when the party is slated to deliberate broader House rules after selecting a speaker.

And though the motion to vacate rules aren’t up for a vote just yet, several proposed amendments are directly related to it. Reps. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) and Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) sought to prevent another speaker ouster and subsequent gavel fight showdown with their amendments.

Huizenga proposed kicking members off committees for at least 90 days if they oppose a speaker on the House floor who received a two-thirds majority nomination vote from the conference. And Van Orden similarly pushed for members to lose their committee assignments if a group of members move to vacate the speaker against the wishes of the majority of their party — as was the case for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster.

Additionally, Huizenga and Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) submitted amendments that would punish lawmakers who block GOP-backed legislation from a floor passage vote, known as voting against the rule. Huizenga’s amendment floated an unspecified “penalty,” while LaLota’s would kick members who opposed rule votes off their committees.

From the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus side, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) sought to clarify the authority of a Speaker Pro Tempore, the person who leads the House temporarily in the event of another speaker vacancy. His amendment, which says the position can only aid in the election of a new speaker, aims to settle discussions over what powers Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) had when he filled the role following the termination of McCarthy’s speakership.

Others like Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Andy Harris (R-Md.), the current chair of the House Freedom Caucus, aimed to curb the power of the GOP steering committee, a leadership-aligned panel that largely decides who will serve as panel chairs and membership.

Harris proposed other amendments aimed at limiting how long Republicans could serve in certain leadership positions. One says a member who is a committee head of one panel cannot immediately become chair or ranking member of another committee if they’ve already hit the term limit of three consecutive terms. Another seeks to limit any members from serving on the Steering Committee for more than three consecutive terms. A third would block members from serving on both a committee and on the Steering panel at the same time, which several have in the past.

Other notable amendment proposals:

Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) is proposing a rule that would create a new GOP leadership position known as the chair of the debt commission.
Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) wants to block Republicans from voting on their GOP leadership lineup before setting their internal rules. (In other words, allowing lawmakers to decide whether they like the rules package before they give their blessing to a speaker nominee.)
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is trying to create more time for members to speak at the microphones during private GOP conference meetings, putting forward an amendment that would curb how much time GOP leadership spends updating its members. Roy also floated a new rule that would allow members to call for votes in a conference meeting to determine if a bill had the support of the majority of Republicans.
Reps. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) and Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) put forward a proposal that would limit the price tag of a bill that can pass under suspension — a procedural tool GOP leadership had used to bypass hardliners when they opposed spending bills — at $100 million. For Palmer, the exception was if the bill included offsets.

House Republicans will meet Thursday morning for a forum to discuss rule amendments, and will convene again that afternoon to vote on their conference rules.

Congress

How Talarico is countering Trump’s midterms convention

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

James Talarico is planning to counterprogram President Donald Trump’s GOP midterms convention in Dallas with a focus on affordability.

The idea from the Texas Democratic Senate candidate and seminarian: host a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive to offer a contrast with Republicans coming to town and highlight the high cost of groceries, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.

“Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption. They’re paying $20,000 for entry to a Billionaire Ball celebrating corrupt tariffs, billionaire tax breaks, and a new forever war that are all driving grocery costs through the roof,” Talarico said in a statement to Blue Light News. “We’ll be doing something different. We’re bringing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together to collect groceries for our neighbors who have been screwed over by corrupt politicians.”

The campaign said it will “mobilize volunteers to collect, sort, and donate groceries for middle class Texans struggling with the high price of groceries.” The event will last from Sunday, Sept. 6 through Wednesday, Sept. 9 — the same day the GOP convention kicks off.

Talarico is also expected to field media interviews in a large warehouse near the convention.

“Texans across the political spectrum will come together to build community, show up for their neighbors, and take power back for working people,” the campaign said in a statement.

A recent poll conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research poll released last week showed Talarico leading ,his opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 48 percent to 42 percent.

Trump this week said he would campaign for Paxton soon.

Congress

‘I don’t think anyone is really comfortable’: Democrat leading on AI raises alarms at Trump, Zuckerberg call

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A House Democrat trying to lead her party on artificial intelligence policy sent a warning shot Friday to tech CEOs trying to undermine efforts to regulate the fast-growing technology.

In an interview, Rep. Lori Trahan raised alarm bells over a POLITICO report detailing attempts by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally discourage President Donald Trump from moving ahead with plans to establish an independent AI regulator modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA.

“I don’t think anyone is really comfortable when they see tech executives who are sitting on the stage at the president’s inauguration, and have had to pay millions of dollars to this fund and that fund, calling the shots,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.

Allowing Zuckerberg to call the shots on the proposed AI commission would be tantamount to “a complete abdication of Congress,” Trahan continued. She also suggested would use her perch on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to work with other Democrats to haul in industry executives like Zuckerberg to testify, should Democrats win back the House majority in the midterms.

“Congress’ job is to do oversight and to have those hearings,” she said. “And I think we would learn a lot from those hearings so that we can put pen to paper on thoughtful proposals. So yes, there have been a number of people, myself included, who have called for those hearings, and I think we’re going to continue to do that.”

Trahan is poised to be a major player in the coming weeks and months when it comes to AI, especially if Democrats prevail in the November elections and are forced to solidify a position on the subject; the party is currently all over the map.

Unlike other Democrats who have retreated to their corners to work on partisan proposals, Trahan has gone out on a limb by crossing the aisle to broker a deal on a bipartisan AI safety bill with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) — a package that was originally met with disdain by members of both parties.

She announced this week she would opt out of a run for a place in House Democratic leadership after being widely expected to make a play in the next Congress — in part, she said, to continue working on AI issues.

But Trahan’s comments Friday illustrate the deep distrust among Democrats, herself included, over the GOP approach to AI regulation — from Republicans waffling on whether they support the proliferation of data centers to Trump’s recent call with Zuckerberg.

Her calls are consistent with left-leaning members like Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has been at the forefront of the most aggressive proposals to crack down on top tech companies.

“The CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI say that cutting edge AI could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons,” Casar said Thursday on X in response to the Blue Light News report. “But Trump is conspiring with billionaires for this technology to be regulated like … Hollywood movies.”

Trahan said Friday that “reasonable people can disagree on what regulatory construct we come up with” governing development and use of AI.

But, she added, “what I don’t think the American people agree with is that Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump are going to figure that out on a phone call.”

Congress

House Dem election leader’s message to states: Count faster

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Democrats’ top election leader has a message for states ahead of the midterms: count faster.

“We are, I think, nicely trying to encourage people to do their balloting as quickly as possible, and that means hiring additional staff so that it doesn’t call into question results,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said in a Thursday interview with Blue Light News.

The advice is just one part of Morelle’s efforts to secure the midterm elections. He said Democrats have wargamed over 150 scenarios of how the Trump administration could attempt to interfere or complicate the November elections and its certification. He is encouraging states to have a “degree of urgency” when counting ballots to stave off Republican-led conspiracy theories about the reasons for delays.

Morelle said he is leaning on states to staff up on election officials to facilitate speedy ballot counting while emphasizing the process should still be “done properly,” “fairly” and that “we don’t want people with cast ballots not to have their ballots counted.” He is going to Los Angeles next week to deliver that message and meet with election security experts and election administrators — though he did not specify whom he is meeting with or where.

“We are trying to gently encourage people to staff up,” he said. Morelle added that if Democrats take the House majority, they’d “push for more resources for local and state administrators so they can hire additional capacity.”

Morelle has other big plans in the majority, including cracking down on dark money in politics, protecting voting rights and most notably, working on a bipartisan voter identification bill.

Asked whether he could accept some form of voter identification as part of a larger bipartisan elections package, Morelle said, “I’m personally not opposed to some form of voter ID,” adding that he has opposed multiple Republican-led proposals to tighten up identification requirements.

“I don’t know where my colleagues on the Democrat side will be, but I think voters think, ‘Okay, you show your ID for just tons of things. Is it really that much of a burden?’” he said. “And if it is, we’ll get state issued IDs or federally issued IDs to people who can’t afford it. So I do think that there’s hope for a bipartisan way forward, and I’ll be anxious to work with colleagues to do it.”