How Democrats Govern in the House

House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, sent a message today that that they will use the huge majorities that they won in November's elections to overpower Republicans any time they wish. In her famous spirit of bipartisanship, compromise, and fairness, Pelosi has signaled that the only voices that matter in our lower house are Democrats' and that they will not budge from their beliefs in the name of doing what they want. Hopefully you can see the irony with this.

The rules changes are supposed to reflect the Democratic view of how the House should be run, and thus are a good indication of what you get when you vote Democrat these days. In the spirit of fiscal responsibility, openness and transparency, Pelosi is making it easier for special projects to be added to legislation by House-Senate conferees after both houses already approved legislation. To represent the change and hope of its news members, Pelosi wants to end the Republican-imposed six-year term limits on committee chairmen and let committee chairmen serve in their personal legislative kingdoms for life.

Another rule change deals with motions to recommit- I'm no expert in parliamentary procedure, but what I gather is that motions to recommit a bill to committee are called for when someone wants to amend the bill, and send it back to committee to be re-written with the amendment, before it is re-submitted to the House floor. This is done rather than amending it while on the House floor. This would slow up legislation and make votes held on the specific amendments, which might make someone look bad. And if you're trying to sneak taxes and fees into unrelated bills, you don't want anyone making you vote on those.

Information for this post came from these stories- here and here.

UPDATE: Using a series of procedural motions, House Republicans forced Pelosi to back off from these rule changes today. It is a temporary victory, most likely- she is a weak leader, but a sneaky one, and will slip in the rule changes somehow so she can rule the House like a petty dictator that she is. Read the link for more info.