On January 3, the U.S. House of Representatives reelected Representative Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House and adopted new rules for the 119th session of Congress.
Those agreed-upon rules, sometimes referred to as the “rules package,” are as significant as who is elected Speaker, as they determine what bills get to the floor of the House for debate, what amendments can be offered, and in general, who gets a voice in the process.
The 34-page rules package listed 12 legislative priorities for the coming year, including a bill protecting girls and women’s sports in education, a bill providing that “sanctuary jurisdictions” are ineligible for funds for illegal aliens and a bill requiring medical workers to care for infants who survive an abortion.
Here’s a rundown of some of the new rules and the legislative priorities listed in House Resolution 5, which passed by a vote of 215 to 209.
House Rules
The new house rules make it more difficult to remove the speaker of the House from his or her leadership role. A resolution to do so can only come from a member of the majority party and must have eight cosponsors from that party.
This changes a rule from 2023, when then-Speaker Kevin Mcarthy agreed to allow just one majority party member to sponsor a resolution to vacate the office. The new rule offers the speaker more protection.
Another rule ended the Office of Diversity and Inclusion; funding for the office had already been eliminated in March.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability was renamed as the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. This name change presumably signals Congress’ willingness to end government waste and reform agencies targeting conservative and Christian groups.
Prior to his reelection and the passage of HR 5, Johnson had posted on X that he wanted “to make meaningful spending reforms to eliminate trillions in waste, fraud, and abuse, and end the weaponization of government.”
In that post, he also committed to cooperating with the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy:
Create a working group comprised of independent experts – not corrupted by lobbyists and special interests – to work with DOGE and our committees on implementing recommended government and spending reforms to protect the American taxpayer.
HR 5 also changed a rule to restore “Family-Centric Language” to a section that prohibits lawmakers from hiring immediate family members. Rather than neutral terms, like “parent, child, [and] sibling,” the new rules use language like “father, mother, son, daughter, brother [and] sister.” LGBT activists and their allies consider this action not “inclusive,” “cruelty” and “disgusting,” reported Bloomberg Government.
Legislative Priorities
HR 5 requires the House to begin considering and hold a vote on 12 key pieces of legislation, including:
A measure to protect girls and women’s sports in education.
While the full text of the bill has not been submitted, HR 28 will “amend the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide that for purposes of determining compliance with title IX of such Act in athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
Title IX originally prohibited sex-based discrimination in schools and education programs, providing equal opportunities for girls and women. But both the Obama and Biden administrations attempted to change the definition of sex to include things like “sex stereotypes,” “sex characteristics,” “pregnancy,” “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
Several resolutions designed to stem the tide of illegal immigration – especially that of criminal immigrants.
HR 29, the Laken Riley Act, requires “the Secretary of Homeland Security to take into custody aliens who have been charged in the United States with theft.” Laken Riley was a nursing student who was brutally assaulted and murdered by José Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan man who had entered the United States illegally.
HR 30 amends “the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide that aliens who have been convicted of or who have committed sex offenses or domestic violence are inadmissible and deportable.”
HR 32 would punish self-designated sanctuary cities and states that provide benefits to illegal aliens by withholding federal money designated to benefit aliens.
HR 31 makes it a deportable offense to assault a law enforcement officer, while HR 35 imposes “criminal and immigration penalties for intentionally fleeing a pursuing Federal officer while operating a motor vehicle.”
A bill protecting infants who survive an abortion or attempted abortion.
In 2003, Congress passed the “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban,” making it illegal to kill an infant that is partially delivered from the womb. HR 21 goes a step further, prohibiting “a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion.”
Other measures would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and prohibit any moratorium on hydraulic fracking.
H.Res.5 – Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Nineteenth Congress
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Ben Shapiro Debunks Abortion Myths at Focus on the Family’s Pro-Life Event – SeeLife 2022
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DOJ Asks FBI to Investigate Alleged Harassment of School Board Members
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Laken Riley Act Introduced in Senate
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