▶ 0:05:02Good afternoon. The committee will come to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess at any time. Today, the rules committee is convening to consider four separate measures. As everyone's aware, these were considered in our last meeting. In the interest of committee's time, we'll move straight to reporting a rule after opening statements.
▶ 0:05:21The measures are as HR526, SJRES 18, HJ 28. We spent hours discussing this legislation last week and so for the sake of time, I don't believe we need to rehash all the arguments that were made. I'd like to focus on one issue that led this rule to fail last week.
▶ 0:05:50The discharge discharge petition from Representative Luna. The committee on rules made efforts to protect this body from a take it or leave it all or nothing proposal to impose proxy voting which while limited would take us down the slippery slope and return us to the rampant abuse of unlimit unlimited proxy voting from members on both sides of the aisle that we witnessed when the Democrats imposed the practice during the co era. Yet the body felt otherwise.
▶ 0:06:20My views on this are abundantly clear given my comments at last week's meetings on the floor and in the media. I never voted by proxy and I joined a lawsuit bought brought by then Leader McCarthy, but the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. With that, I look forward to today's discussion and I now yield to the ranking member, Mr. McGovern, for any comments he wishes to make. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, and I've I've said it before and I'll say it again.
▶ 0:06:48Uh, this Republican leadership is running this House of Representatives like an authoritarian regime, ironfisted, closed-doored, and absolutely terrified of open debate. For those uh that missed it last week, House Republican leadership lost a rule vote. Why?
▶ 0:07:05Because extremists were so threatened by the idea of letting new parents uh both care for their newborns and represent their constituents through remote voting that they had leadership try to kill Representative Luna's bipartisan discharge petition. Think about that. A supposedly pro-f family party worked to block a simple common sense policy that supports working moms in Congress. It was a move that was unprecedented and thankfully a majority of members in our chamber pushed back.
▶ 0:07:34When he lost the vote, Speaker Johnson sent everyone home, blaming the few Republicans who had the guts to take a stand for family values. And over the weekend, he managed to strongarm the few holdouts, uh, getting them to back off remote voting for new parents and instead promising them what is nothing more than a glorified permission slip. It really is quite sad. It's crystal clear that Republican leaders do not care about their own members.
▶ 0:08:02Uh they don't care about your ideas, your constituents, or even the rules of the House. If you're not part of their inner circle, your voice doesn't count. Don't just take my word for it. In just 3 months, this majority has rammed through 29 closed rules. 29 closed rules. I'm not a mathematician, but that's almost all of them. Zero opportunity for members to debate improvements or even suggest changes. No discussion, no debate, no nothing.
▶ 0:08:31Republican leadership has blocked 94% of all amendments. That includes 100% of bipartisan amendments and even 63% of amendments offered by their own Republican colleagues. Let me say that a different way. Every bipartisan amendment has been blocked and a majority of Republican amendments have been blocked. And it's only April and now they're scrambling to dodge accountability on Trump's reckless tariffs.
▶ 0:08:57The Senate acted, but here in the House, Republican leadership rewrote the rules of time to avoid a floor vote. They literally changed the definition of a day to prevent a vote on Trump's tariffs. Meanwhile, the country is in crisis. People's retirement accounts are evaporating. Prices are going up, and their top priority is they don't have the courage to debate or vote on tar on the tariffs. So, they're changing the rules.
▶ 0:09:26so they can run and hide. This isn't a functioning house. It's a one party echo chamber led by a leadership team that doesn't trust its own members to think for their themselves. Americans deserve a Congress that debates, that legislates, and that reflects the will of the people, not one that cares only about protecting Donald Trump while the economy head heads toward a recession and the country hurdles towards a constitutional crisis. I yield back. Gentlemen yields back.
▶ 0:09:57Um, the chair will be in the receipt in receipt of a motion from the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Griffith. Madam Chair, I move the committee grant SJRES 18 disapproving of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to overdraft lending very large financial institutions. A closed rule. The rule waves all points of order against consideration of the joint resolution. The rule provides the joint resolution shall be considered as read. The rule waves all points of order against provisions in the joint resolution.
▶ 0:10:24The rule provides one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on financial services or the respective design. The rule provides one motion to commit. The rule further provides for consideration of SJRES 28 disapproving of the rule submitted by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection relating to defining larger participants of of a market for general use digital consumer payment applications under a closed rule. The rule waves all points of order against consideration of the joint resolution. The rule provides that the joint resolution shall be considered as read.
▶ 0:10:54The rule waves all points of order against provisions in the joint resolution. The rule provides one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on financial services or their respective design. The rule provides one motion to commit. The rule further provides for consideration of HR 1526, the no rogue rulings act of 2025 under a closed rule. The rule waves all points of order against consideration of the bill.
▶ 0:11:18The rule provides that the amendment the nature of a substitute recommended by the committee on judiciary now printed in the bill shall be considered as adopted and the bill as amended shall be considered as read. The rule waves all points of order against provisions in the bill as amended. The rule provides one hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on judiciary or their respective design. The rule provides one motion to recommmit. The rule further provides for consideration of HR22, the SAVE act under a closed rule. The rule waves all points of order against consideration the bill.
▶ 0:11:47The rule provides that the bill shall be considered as read. The rule waves all points of order against provisions in the bill. The rule provides one hour of general debate equally divided and control by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on house administration or their respective design. The rule provides one motion to recommit. The rule further provides that house resolution 293 is hereby adopted. Finally, the rule provides that House Resolution 164 is laid on the table. I so move.
▶ 0:12:19Thank you, Mr. Griffith. I will take a moment to point out that Speaker Johnson, Representative Luna, and members of this committee have worked tirelessly over the last week to resolve Mrs. Luna's concerns. I'm glad to report that the rule today restores a historic tool of the House, dead pairing, which meets Mrs. Luna's needs and avoids going down an unconstitutional path of proxy voting.
▶ 0:12:46This agreement is grounded in existing precedents, practices, and common sense. I thank the gentle lady from Florida, Representative Luna, for reaching this conclusion and helping us resolve this issue. We all know she's well-intentioned and holds fast to her principles.
▶ 0:13:04I'm glad she stuck with them even as she sought consensus with her You've now heard the motion. Is there any discussion or amendment to the rule? Yes, Madam Chair. Mr. McGovern, I'm going to have three amendments. Um, first I have an amendment to the rule.
▶ 0:13:31I move the committee strike section six of the rule, which tables Representative Luna's original resolution providing for consideration of House Resolution 23 permitting parental remote voting by proxy killing the discharge petition. Madam Chair, last week's rule was the first ever in the history of the House of Representatives to try to just outright kill a discharge petition that had already been signed by a majority of the House and wasn't being considered by another method.
▶ 0:14:00This week's rule has the same cowardly language. Let me be clear, your resolution about paired voting isn't worth the paper it's printed on, and it doesn't solve the problem that new parents face in this institution. While I'm saddened that you're that you're again trying to kill this discharge petition, I will take this moment to correct a lot of what was said on the other side of the day last week. First, let me be clear about what parental remote voting resolution would actually do.
▶ 0:14:29It would simply allow members blessed with a new child to continue representing their constituents by voting remotely for up to 12 weeks in the time immediately before and after the birth of their baby. And it requires that for every vote during that period, the member voting remotely must provide exact instructions on how their votes shall be cast. They are not giving up any power at all. They're just working from where they need to be to care for their newborn.
▶ 0:14:55Second, uh they claim that this is part of some conspiratorial effort to turn Congress into an online workplace where we don't come together in person anymore. Let me be clear. If that's what this resolution did, I would not be supporting it. But of course, that's not at all what this resolution will do. I'm not sure if my colleagues across the aisle have noticed this, but the House is not exactly a group of spring chickens.
▶ 0:15:20A couple of members uh at a time voting remotely out of 435 is not going to change the feel of this institution, especially when the alternative is just uh is just them being absent completely. We think it's right to let new moms continue representing uh the their constituent, the constituents who elected them without having to make an impossible choice between a newborn and a flight to DC.
▶ 0:15:44Republicans who oppose this resolution would prefer their constituents with a member lucky enough to welcome a new baby just go without representation. And they are right about one thing. That is exactly how it worked in the past. When Representative Luna had her baby last Congress, she had to miss almost 150 votes while caring for him. This Congress, Representative Person, uh has had to miss over 80% of the votes to care for her newborn. But guess what?
▶ 0:16:13We have the power to change that and we should. And if for some reason you're opposed to that, uh you would get a chance to vote no when the resolution comes to the floor. making threats and ultimatums to try to get your way in the face of a bipartisan majority is simply anti-democratic. Third, I keep hearing from the other side of the aisle that it is somehow unfair to our teachers, police officers, construction workers, and service workers to let new moms representing their constituents while caring for a newborn.
▶ 0:16:42No, I just hope uh that new moms in Congress get to keep doing the jobs they were elected to do. I have worked hard in my career to try to ensure that every new mom teaching in our schools, keeping our streets safe, and serving our communities, gets time at home with their newborns, and has the guarantee of a job to come back to if they choose to continue working. And finally, let me be very clear about what happened with the parental remote voting resolution.
▶ 0:17:09Members worked across the aisle to draft a compromised version of that common sense provision. A bipartisan majority of this house then expressed its will to take the resolution to the floor. Members followed the rules, same basic rules that have been in place for 100 years, the same rules that have never been trod over like this rule uh tries to uh in the entire history of the house. Discharge is a very difficult process. It rarely is successful. And when it is successful, it's unusual.
▶ 0:17:38It's unu it's unusually be it's usually because the speaker is blocking something that is common sense. That's the case here. Republican leadership has been silent on one of their members illegally, by the way, voting uh by proxy from Hollywood, went to film a comedy show uh and he had another member vote uh for him. And my Republican friends have been silent on that.
▶ 0:18:02and on and um and Speaker Johnson still hasn't replied to a letter that many of us wrote him asking what he's going to do about that episode because that is voter fraud. The rules have not been changed to allow for proxy voting. Not one word about that voter fraud. Not a single word. But that my Republican friends are falling all over themselves to block mothers with newborn babies from continuing to represent their constituents. I think that's shameful. Adopt my amendment and let the discharge uh process play out as it always has.
▶ 0:18:31and let the House decide. Uh, I yield Is there any further discussion on the amendment offered by Mr. McGovern? Madam Chair, Miss Leisure Fernandez, you're recognized. Madam Chair, I also want to speak in favor of the amendment, especially considering uh what the uh ranking member has pointed out.
▶ 0:18:54A bipartisan group of representatives recognized the importance of allowing this unique circumstance to be accommodated so that new mothers would not risk either their life or the life of their newborn baby when they had to travel to DC to participate in important votes.
▶ 0:19:25And what happened last week was a demonstration that there was support to allow the discharge petition to move forward to allow a process that had been adopted by this body, the people's house, for decades, and allow it to play out its course. Let them vote, speaker. Let them vote. Let us vote.
▶ 0:19:55Let us decide whether this should happen or not. So this resolution of pairs sort of sounds like we're playing a card game or something and rather rather than actually trying to protect women's health and you know babies's health, newborn's health when they are teenytiny they cannot get vaccinated.
▶ 0:20:17So if you feel that in order to represent your constituents, you need to travel here, you are going to be putting them at risk. And the idea that you are going to find a pair, that doesn't make sense. This is supposed to be something acknowledging a unique medical condition of new families.
▶ 0:20:42It is respectful of the unique issues facing new parents. And so I join uh in uh Representative McGovern's motion to strike House Resolution 293 and to let the discharge petition run its course. Thank you, Miss Leisure Fernandez. Any further discussion on the amendment? Hearing none the questions on the amendment.
▶ 0:21:11All those in favor signifies by saying I. I. Those opposed say no. No. In the opinion chair of the nos have it. The amendment is not agreed to. Ask for roll call. Mr. McGovern request a roll call and the clerk will recall the role. Mrs. Fishbach. Mrs. Fishbach. No. Mr. Norman. No. Mr. Norman. No. Mr. Roy. Mr. Roy. No. Mrs. Hchin. Mrs. Hchin? No, Mr.
▶ 0:21:40Langworthy Mr. Scott. No, Mr. Scott. No, Mr. Griffith. No, Mr. Griffith. No, Mr. Jack. No, Mr. Jack. No, Mr. McGovern. Hi, Mr. McGovern. I Miss Gallen. Mr. Nagus. Miss Miss Ledger Fernandez. Miss Ledger Fernandez.
▶ 0:22:04I madame chair. No. The clerk will report the total. Two yays, eight nays. The uh nos have it. The amendment is not agreed to. Madam, is there further discussion on the Madam Chair? I have an amendment to the rule.
▶ 0:22:32I move the committee strike section five of the rule which deems as adopted Representative Luna's resolution on paired voting. Madam Chair, I I have to say this so-called deal on paired voting is a trick. And I hope Representative Luna didn't get fooled into thinking that this was anything substantial. We have gone from new moms and dads having an actual vote to having a glorified permission slip. A very official way of saying you're missing the vote. Uh and you're deeming it.
▶ 0:23:01So, we won't even have a chance to debate and vote on it separately on the floor. So, let me try to explain it uh right now. Let's say a Democratic member is going to have to miss votes. And this isn't specific to members who had a baby. By the way, uh they tell our cloak room that they'd like to pair with someone on the other side. Our cloak room confers with the Republican cloak room who say that they have a member who is also absent and would like to pair their vote. the pair is announced during the vote uh and in the congressional record.
▶ 0:23:31Theoretically, because they're on opposite sides and both missed the vote, they canceled each other out. Does that seem like that it's equivalent to voting? Um this is the same language that used to be in the House rules, but it was deleted 25 years ago in favor of the slips members can fill out explaining how they would have voted because that's a better system. You can't make this stuff up. But let me quote from the 106 Congress rules package debate.
▶ 0:23:58The practice of pairing would be eliminated in favor of the more certain system of putting a statement in the record as to how the member would have voted, which appears immediately after the vote. End quote. So, we've gone from an actual vote that could make a difference to an extremely official and outdated way of announcing you miss votes along with another member. This is nothing more than a fig leaf to allow rep the Republican majority to do what they always do. Cave to the demands of the Freedom Caucus.
▶ 0:24:28We can we can take a couple of lessons from this. First, Republicans don't care about making it easier for young parents to be in Congress. Second, and I'm speaking specifically to members of the Republican conference here, your leadership does not care about the rules of the House. They do not care if you did everything right to build support for your idea and bring it to the floor under rules that have been in place for almost a century. They will make things up about you. They will bully you and and your allies into having to accept absolutely nothing.
▶ 0:24:57And they will force you to treat it like it's a victory. All because they can't stand up to the Freedom Caucus. This is an embarrassing capitulation that should be struck uh from the rules so we can keep our focus on the effort to get new parents a real vote here. I yield back. Gentlemen yields back. Does any is there any further discussion on the amendment? Hearing none. The questions on the amendment. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.
▶ 0:25:26Those opposed say no. No. In the opinion chair the nose have it. The amendment is not agreed to. Ask for roll call. Mr. McGovern request a roll call. The clerk will call the role. Mrs. Fishbach, no. Mrs. Fishbach, no. Mr. Norman, Mr. Norman, no. Mr. Roy, no. Mr. Roy, no. Mrs. Hchin, Mrs. Houchin, no. Mr. Mr. Scott, no. Mr. Scott, no. Mr. Griffith, no. Mr. Griffith, no. Mr. Jack, no. Mr. Jack, no. Mr.
▶ 0:25:56McGovern, I. Mr. McGovern, I miss Scallan. Mr. Negus. Miss Ledger Fernandez. Hi. Miss Ledger Fernandez. I Madame Chair. No. Madam Chair. No. The clerk will report the total. Two yays. Eight nays. The the nos have it. The amendment is not agreed to. Mr. McGovern. I said I had three. I I'm going to stick with two, but I don't I don't know whether this Madam Chair, Miss Leure Fernandez, you're recognized.
▶ 0:26:26Madame Chair, I have an amendment uh uh to the rule. I move to add a new section to the rule stating that House Resolution 211 is amended by striking section 4. This amendment shall take effect as of included in the adoption of House Resolution 211.
▶ 0:26:45And let me remind everybody what we would be striking here is that uh the Republicans actually said that we shall stop time and they passed snuck into a rule that each day for the remainder of the first session of the 119th Congress shall not constitute a calendar day.
▶ 0:27:13And they did this because when Trump imposed the par tariffs on Mexico and Canada, they didn't want to have a vote on whether or not those tariffs were consistent with the Emergency Act under which he was declaring them. So, Congress said, "We're going to stop time." And what has happened since they stopped time?
▶ 0:27:43People have suffered. In fact, car prices are going up $4,000 to $15,000 a vehicle. Trucks increased after those first tariffs in one dealership by 20,000. And so, while Congress thinks it stopped time because it is too afraid to vote yes or no on the tariffs.
▶ 0:28:07And if you believe that terrorists are a good thing, then exercise your constitutional responsibility and vote for them. But don't stop time to say we shall never ever address this or not because people are hurting. And so Trump keeps utilizing that same act to have this trade war that we are now engaged in where he is tanking and destroying our economy.
▶ 0:28:37The stock market has plummeted as of though we're in a pandemic. But the only thing that we are suffering from is Trump's tariffs. And it is up to this body to exercise its constitutional duty and vote whether or not you support those tariffs. Don't hide it in a rule. Don't pretend we can stop time.
▶ 0:29:05Don't allow the president to just golfing while people's 401ks and retirement are disappearing. And so my amendment would say no, time has not stopped.
▶ 0:29:21And so resolutions that should come to the floor to be able to be voted on that were properly time the clock would tick talk and we'd be able to vote on those.
▶ 0:29:43And so it's a in some senses a simple amendment acknowledge that we are not time travelers and that we do not have the power to stop time but we do have the power to vote on whether Trump's tariffs that he imposed on Canada and Mexico are appropriate. Uh so with that I yield back. Madam Chair thank you Miss Leure Fernandez. Is there any further discussion on the amendment? Hearing none the question is on the amendment.
▶ 0:30:11All those in favor signify by saying I. Those opposed say no. No. In the opinion chair the nos have it. The amendments not agreed to. Measure Fernandez request the recorded vote. The clerk will call the role. Mrs. Fishbach. Mrs. Fishbach. No. Mr. Norman. No. Mr. Norman. No. Mr. Roy. No. Mr. Roy. No. Mrs. Houchin. Mrs. Hchin. No. Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Scott? No.
▶ 0:30:42Mr. Scott, Mr. Langworth, they said no. Mr. Griffith. Mr. Griffith, no. Mr. Jack, no. Mr. Jack, no. Mr. Mr. McGovern. I Miss Scanlin. Mr. Negus. Miss Ledger Fernandez. Hi. Miss Ledger Fernandez. I Madam Chair. Madame chair, no.
▶ 0:31:14The clerk will report the total. Two yays, nine nays. The nos have it. The amendment is not agreed to. Is there further discussion on the amendment? On the amendment on on the on the on the on the motion.
▶ 0:31:32I could talk more about the amendment that just failed because what everybody just voted for is to say that they are in favor of the tariffs moving forward because they're unwilling to actually take a vote on the floor of the house to protect the You have a motion for I do have another motion, Madam Chair. Okay. Uh, Madame Chair, I have an amendment to the rule and the amendment is I have I move the committee make an or order amendment number 21 to HR22 offered by myself.
▶ 0:32:04Um, and that Republicans keep saying this is to the Save Act. Republicans keep saying that bill would not disenfranchise anyone. The reality is that it would indeed make it harder for people across this country to register to vote. Its impact would be particularly hard on married women. It would have more obstacles for married women's ability to register to vote.
▶ 0:32:34They need to have both a birth certificate, a passport, a marriage license. They would have to make multiple trips. uh to their uh where they get their who knows where they like who all I mean if if we went around the stairs and said do you know where your birth certificate is? Do you know where your passport is? Do you know where your marriage license is? They are going to be placing a higher burden on women just to be able to register to vote.
▶ 0:33:02They're going to be making it more expensive on women who will have to secure more documents. So, my amendment, similar to what we did last week, would make it easier on married women to register to vote. Uh, if you really want to make it easy for married women to register to vote, I'll vote in favor of my motion. Any further discussion on the amendment? Hearing none, the questions on the amendment. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.
▶ 0:33:33All those opposed say no. No. In the opinion, chairs no have it. The amendment is not to. Is there any further discussion or amendment? Hearing none. Hearing no further discussion, the questions on the motion from the gentleman from Virginia. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed say no. No. In the opinion, chair, the eyes have it. The motion is agreed.
▶ 0:34:03Chair for a roll call. Mr. from McGovern asked for a roll call. The clerk will call the role. Mrs. Fishbach. Yes. Mrs. Fishbach. I Mr. Norman. I. Mr. Norman. I Mr. Roy. I. Mr. Roy. I Mrs. Howchin. I. Mrs. Howchin. I Mr. Langworthy. I. Mr. Langworthy. I Mr. Scott. I. Mr. Scott. I Mr. Griffith. I. Mr. Griffith. I Mr. Jack. I. Mr. Jack. I Mr. McGovern. No.
▶ 0:34:33Mr. Govern. Mr. McGovern, no. Miss Scandlin, Mr. Negus, Miss Ledger Fernandez, no. Miss Ledger Fernandez, no. Madame Chair, I. Madam Chair, I The clerk will report the total. Nine yays, two nays. The eyes have it. The motion to report is agreed to. Accordingly, I'll be managing this rule for the majority and I'll be doing it for the minority. And Mr.
▶ 0:35:01McGovern will manage for the minority without objection. Madam Chair, do we have no know are we going to meet tomorrow again? Do we know we will see Mr. Without objection, the meeting the committee is adjourned.