Hastert Rule

Dennis Hastert explicitly adopted the majority of the majority rule after becoming Speaker of the House.

The Hastert Rule, also known as the "majority of the majority" rule, is an informal governing principle used in the United States by Republican[1][2][3] Speakers of the House of Representatives since the mid-1990s to maintain their speakerships[4] and limit the power of the minority party to bring bills up for a vote on the floor of the House.[5] Under the doctrine, the Speaker will not allow a floor vote on a bill unless a majority of the majority party supports the bill.[6]

Under House rules, the Speaker schedules floor votes on pending legislation. The Hastert Rule says that the Speaker will not schedule a floor vote on any bill that does not have majority support within his or her party — even if the majority of the members of the House would vote to pass it. The rule keeps the minority party from passing bills with the assistance of a minority of majority party members. 218 votes are needed to pass a bill in the House; if the Democrats are the minority and the Republicans are the majority, the Hastert Rule would not allow 200 Democrats and 100 Republicans together to pass a bill, because 100 Republican votes is short of a majority of the majority party, so the Speaker would not allow a vote to take place.[7] However, the Hastert Rule is an informal rule and the Speaker is not bound by it; he or she may break it at his or her discretion. Speakers have at times broken the Hastert Rule and allowed votes to be scheduled on legislation that lacked majority support within the Speaker's own party.

Origins

The Hastert Rule's introduction is widely credited to Speaker Dennis Hastert (1999–2007); however, Newt Gingrich, who directly preceded Hastert as Speaker (1995–1999), followed the same rule.[8] The notion of the rule arose out of a debate in 2006 over whether Hastert should bring an immigration reform bill to the House floor after it had been passed by the Senate. “It was pretty obvious at that point that it didn’t have the votes to move it out, especially in the Judiciary Committee,” he said later. “It was pretty well stacked with people who weren’t willing to move.”[9]

Speakers' views and use of the policy

Commentary

Commentators' views about the Hastert Rule are generally negative. The New York Times reported in 2016 that the rule "has come to be seen as a structural barrier to compromise."[33]

George Crawford, writing in The Hill observes that the rule restricts legislative proposals to those approved by the majority of the Speaker's caucus. When combined with a systematic effort to marginalize the influence of the minority power, it can lead to a breakdown of the legislative process, radicalization of the members of the minority party, and legislation that does not reflect the broadest view and area of agreement.[5]

It also all but ensures that the Speaker will keep his or her job.[8]

Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, an expert on Congress, opposes the rule, arguing that it is a major reason why bills passed on a bipartisan basis in the Senate are often not later introduced in the House.[7] Ornstein notes that the speaker is the leader of his or her party but is also "a constitutional officer" who is "ratified by the whole House" and as such has a duty to put the House ahead of his or her party at crucial times.[12]

Ezra Klein of The Washington Post has written that the Hastert Rule is "more of an aspiration" than a rule and that codifying it as a formal rule would be detrimental to House Republicans, as it would prevent them from voting against bills that the Republican caucus wanted passed but that a majority of Republicans wanted to oppose for ideological or political reasons.[34]

Matthew Yglesias, writing in Slate, has contended that the rule, while flawed, is better than the alternatives and that the dynamic prior to its adoption was "a weird kind of super-empowerment of the Rules committee that allowed it to arbitrarily bottle up proposals."[35]

Senator Angus King of Maine, an independent, as well as commentators such as Rex Huppke of The Chicago Tribune and Eric Black of MinnPost have blamed the Hastert Rule for the government shutdown of October 2013.[2][36] Huppke added facetiously, "Here's the fun part: the Hastert Rule isn't an official rule, or an official anything. It's just a made-up concept, like bipartisanship or polite discourse."[37]

CNBC's Ben White has called the Hastert Rule "perhaps the most over-hyped phenomena in politics," since Republican speakers "have regularly violated the rule when it was in their interest to do so."[38]

Discharge petition

A discharge petition signed by 218 members (or more) from any party is the only way to force consideration of a bill that does not have the support of the Speaker. However, discharge petitions are rarely successful, as a member of the majority party defying his or her party's leadership by signing a discharge petition can expect retribution from the leadership.

References

  1. 1 2 Goddard, Taegan (January 16, 2013). "Did Democrats finally find a way to bypass House Republicans?". The Week.
  2. 1 2 "King: 'Hastert rule' added to gridlock". Associated Press. October 17, 2013.
  3. Murse, Time. "The Hastert Rule". About.com.
  4. 1 2 Ball, Molly (July 21, 2013). "Even the Aide Who Coined the Hastert Rule Says the Hastert Rule Isn't Working". The Atlantic.
  5. 1 2 Crawford, George (September 19, 2007). "The 'majority of the majority' doctrine". The Hill.
  6. Sherman, Jake; Allen, Jonathan (July 30, 2011). "Boehner seeks 'majority of the majority'". Politico.
  7. 1 2 Welna, David (December 2, 2012). "The 3 Unofficial GOP Rules That Are Making A Deficit Deal Even Harder". NPR.
  8. 1 2 3 Feehery, John (August 1, 2011). "Majority of the majority". The Hill.
  9. Meckler, Laura (January 30, 2014). "Former Speaker Hastert Calls for Immigration Overhaul". The Wall Street Journal.
  10. Feehery, John (January 16, 2013). "Rules Are Made to Be Broken". The Feehery Theory.
  11. "Congress Reaches Deal on Intelligence Bill". PBS NewsHour. December 6, 2004.
  12. 1 2 Babington, Charles (November 27, 2004). "Hastert Launches a Partisan Policy". The Washington Post.
  13. Noah, Timothy (Sep 27, 2013). "The absurdity of the Hastert Rule". MSNBC. Retrieved Oct 3, 2013.
  14. Strong, Jonathan (July 3, 2013). "Immigration and the Hastert Rule". National Review.
  15. Clift, Eleanor (October 3, 2013). "Denny Hastert Disses the 'Hastert Rule': It 'Never Really Existed'". The Daily Beast.
  16. 1 2 3 Davis, Susan (May 29, 2007). "Pelosi Brings End to 'Hastert Rule'". Roll Call. Archived from the original on 2015-06-22.
  17. Robillard, Kevin (May 14, 2013). "Nancy Pelosi: Female John Boehner would be called the 'weakest speaker'". Politico.
  18. Sherman, Jake; Bresnahan, John (December 27, 2012). "Fiscal cliff action shifts to Senate". Politico.
  19. Newhauser, Daniel; Shiner, Meredith (December 27, 2012). "Boehner 'Not Interested' in Bill That Most of GOP Would Reject". Roll Call.
  20. Hook, Janet; Boles, Corey; Hughes, Siobhan (January 2, 2013). "Congress Passes Cliff Deal". The Wall Street Journal.
  21. Tomasky, Michael (January 2, 2013). "The End of the Hastert Rule". The Daily Beast.
  22. Tumulty, Karen; Wallsten, Peter (January 2, 2013). "Has the 'fiscal cliff' fight changed how Washington works?". The Washington Post.
  23. Johnson, Luke (January 3, 2013). "Dennis Hastert Warns John Boehner About Leadership After Fiscal Cliff Deal". The Huffington Post.
  24. Robillard, Kevin (January 3, 2013). "Dennis Hastert warns Boehner on his 'rule'". Politico.
  25. 1 2 Newhauser, Daniel (January 16, 2013). "'Hastert Rule' Takes Body Blows With Sandy, Cliff Votes". Roll Call.
  26. Yglesias, Matthew (January 17, 2013). "House GOP Considering New Strategy on Fiscal Issues: Surrender!". Slate.
  27. Frum, David (January 16, 2013). "Speaker Boehner, Ditch the Hastert Rule". The Daily Beast.
  28. Russert, Luke (February 28, 2013). "Boehner eschews Hastert rule for third time". NBC News.
  29. Willis, Derek (April 11, 2013). "Tracking Hastert Rule Violations in the House". The New York Times.
  30. Blake, Aaron (April 11, 2013). "Boehner on Hastert Rule: 'It was never a rule to begin with'". The Washington Post.
  31. Everett, Burgess; Sherman, Jake; Raju, Manu (October 17, 2013). "Boehner taps Dems to push budget deal across finish line". Politico.
  32. Cillizza, Chris (February 16, 2014). "Does John Boehner still want to be House speaker?". The Washington Post.
  33. Carl Hurse (May 2, 2016). "Now, Dennis Hastert Seems an Architect of Dysfunction as Speaker". New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  34. Klein, Ezra (June 18, 2013). "Is Boehner bluffing on the Hastert rule? Even he doesn't know.". The Washington Post.
  35. Yglesias, Matthew (January 2, 2013). "Boehner to Reid: "Go F—— Yourself"; Why Party Cartels Matter". Slate.
  36. Black, Eric (October 2, 2013). "What's behind the shutdown? Put 'Hastert Rule' and Constitution on your list". MinnPost.
  37. Huppke, Rex (October 17, 2013). "We'll miss the countdown to catastrophe". The Chicago Tribune.
  38. White, Ben (November 25, 2013). "A winter of bitter discontent in DC? Maybe not". CNBC.

External links

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