Rep. Kevin McCarthy made many concessions in his bid to become speaker of the House. But his offer to allow the hard-line House Freedom Caucus to select three of the nine Republicans on the powerful House Committee on Rules stands out for its ability to diminish the influence of the Republican Party within the House. It will grant a handful of extremists outsize power in Congress, reducing the Republican Party’s ability to govern.
The deal, which wasn’t part of proposed rule amendments adopted Monday evening, is far more significant than the much-ballyhooed change allowing a single House member to essentially call a vote of no-confidence against the speaker. Threatening the speaker’s job is messy, and as aggressive as the dissidents might be, the mechanism isn’t something likely to see everyday use.
By contrast, handing seats on the Rules Committee to a small, radical faction institutionalizes their influence in a way that will come into play on every single bill the House considers, because every bill must go through that committee in order to be considered by the full House.
