Congressional Sabotage

Crippling a New House Majority

If hostile political opponents purposely set out to undermine the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, they could do no better than a current handful of Republican dissidents. In trying to keep Kevin McCarthy from becoming Speaker with demands that would make the House ungovernable, they could sabotage everything that was promised to the American people in the election campaign.

What are my credentials for making such a encompassing statement. For twenty years I served in the Congress, eighteen of which were in the minority. During that time I was a presence on the House Floor providing daily opposition to the Democrat majority. I learned the House rules well enough that I could tie up the process and create votes that were politically difficult for the Democrats. I did the job well enough that the Washington Post did a feature article labeled “Is Bob Walker the Most Obnoxious Man in the Congress?” and concluded that I probably was. In other words, I know something about how process can be used to keep things from happening in the Congress.

Some of the demands being made by those who are refusing to vote for McCarthy are fodder for the Democrat minority to wreck havoc with the Republican agenda. One of those demands is allowing any single Member to go to the House Floor and make a motion to “vacate the Chair.” That motion, if successful, would result in the Speaker having to step down and a new Speaker chosen. All busines in the House would be halted until the motion could be debated and a vote taken. You would suspect the Republicans could hold their troops together for such a vote, but not if a few Republicans were behind it and the Democrats all voted for it. If the motion carried, it could close down all other business in the House for days or even weeks. And imagine if every time an important Republican initiative was scheduled for Floor action, someone from the opposition would show up to make the vacate motion.

If I had had that tool available to me years ago, I could have done a lot of damage to Democrat schedules and initiatives. Just the treat of using the motion in particularly difficult legislative circumstances would be a weapon of “mass destruction."

The handful of Republican dissidents clearly are attempting to create leverage for consideration of their issues during the upcoming congressional session. Power for a few to influence the many is one of the arts of politics. But with a very narrow GOP majority in the House, a nearly ungovernable situation is likely scenario. And if the Republicans are seen by the public as unable to govern, the future consequences are clearly dire.

In these column, I try to look toward the future where politics and technology intersect. The potential that Congress will continue to be deadlocked for the next two years is a frightening prospect both economically and strategically. The political split between the House and Senate makes the potential for deadlock very real. If before the House gets organized, the key player in making it work, the Speaker, cannot be agreed upon without concessions that render the body ungovernable, it is not just the Republicans who will suffer, but the whole Nation.