Republicans to open up the amendment process to Democrats

  Yesterday, while I was making my rounds to my favorite blogs, I came across a post by Larry at Political Realities that I found interesting. Larry was writing about what the GOP needed to do moving forward now that the election was over.

  In this post, Larry suggested that one of the first things the Republicans should do would be to open up the amendment process; this would stop legislation from being debated behind closed doors and also open up the amendment process to Democrats, allowing them to have some input on the final structure of legislation before it is voted on.

  This was a House rule from 1994–part of the Newt Gingrich contract with America–until shortly after Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House when she suddenly changed the House rule against the opposition of Republicans. Here is part of what Larry had to say in his post:

 

I know the Gingrich era failed to live up to a lot of it’s promise, but that does not take away from the fact that his group had a lot of good ideas. The changes in the House Rules that he established were part of those good ideas and they held in good standing for 15 years. What changed after those 15 years, you ask? After sitting as speaker for two years and seeing Barack Obama swept into the White House, Nancy Pelosi decided she had enough clout to reverse the changes and in January 2009, she went forward with a plan to do just that. This plan basically reverted the House of Representatives back to the old school way of doing business. Legislation was thereafter assembled in secret, behind closed doors, and the process whereby members of Congress could offer amendments was severely restricted, if not stopped altogether.

  It is interesting to note that Barack Obama and the Democrats promised to run the most open administration in history, yet one of the first things that Nancy Pelosi did was to close the amendment process that led to the backroom dealings that they were supposed to be against in the first place.

  I honestly believe that this was an intentionally divisive and partisan move; the Democrats shunned the Republicans from the amendment process, not giving them a chance to make changes to bills that might make them more palatable to Republicans with the intent of enticing them to vote against it just so that the Democrats could label the Republicans as unwilling to work with them while painting them  as obstructionists at the same time.

 But it was the Democrats all along who were attempting to pass the legislation without an honest bipartisan effort. I also believe that they did this because they mistakenly thought that the American people handed them a mandate in 2008 and they became cocky and over-reached.

  Today we have learned that the Republicans do intend to change the House rules to open up the amendment procedure, fulfilling a promise that the Democrats failed to live up to, and will allow Democrats to offer amendments to spending bills.

This promise represents a change from the last four years under Democratic control when Republican members were often blocked from offering amendments by Democratic leadership.

  I believe that this is a great idea and it should accomplish two things: first, it will allow for a more transparent government that is not as susceptible to the type of backroom deals that we have grown so tired of over the last two years and second; it will be a small olive branch to the Democrats while at the same time sending  a message to the Democrats and to the American people that the Republicans actually do mean to have a more open and honest government than we have seen over the last two years.

  This does not mean that Republicans should compromise on their core values or beliefs, to do that would be unforgivable. They should hold firm to their campaign promises and not give in on the issues that really matter–tax cuts, the economy, cap and trade, illegal immigration, or defunding and repealing ObamaCare–but this is a step in the right direction. This will open up the process and it will help to ensure we have a more accountable government, and after all, wasn’t that one of their campaign promises also?