A handful of House Democrats signaled Friday that they will withhold their support for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s speakership bid in a pressure effort to convince the California Democrat to agree to a rules reform package that would weaken her control on the lower chamber.
“We will only vote for a speaker candidate who supports ‘break the gridlock’ rules changes,” nine Democrats belonging to the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“While we appreciate Leader Pelosi’s broad commitment to our effort, we have yet to receive specific commitments to our proposed rules changes that would help ‘break the gridlock’ and allow for true bipartisan governing in this new era of divided government,” their statement continued, referring to a meeting they had last week with Pelosi. “Without specific changes, we will face more of the same — small pockets of extreme ideologues will continue to block the will of the commonsense majority.”
The Problem Solvers Caucus is a group of 48 members, 24 from each side of the political aisle. The 36 member-backed “break the gridlock” package includes a suite of 10 proposals that would essentially encourage consensus-building. Chief among the ideas is requiring a supermajority vote for bills brought under “closed” rules, fast-tracking the consideration of legislation co-sponsored by two-thirds of the House, and replacing the “motion to vacate the chair” procedure used by the House Freedom Caucus with a public petition.
Pelosi, who stands unopposed as the presumptive next speaker, had agreed to put in writing any changes with which she approved, but had not responded last week by the group’s deadline. Earlier, she had praised the plan for presenting “valuable solutions” and described their meeting as “positive and constructive.”
An aide for Pelosi told The Hill on Friday that negotiations are ongoing, while the dissenting House Democrats said they had reached an impasse.
“Although we are at a stalemate in our discussions, and therefore cannot support Leader Pelosi for speaker at this time, we will keep working with the leader and others in hope of reaching consensus on specific rules changes for more bipartisan, common sense governing,” they wrote.
The statement Friday follows a letter sent last week to Pelosi, which was signed by the nine Democratic lawmakers: Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J.; Jim Costa, D-Calif.; Tom O’Halleran, D-Ariz.; Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.; Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.; Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill.; Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla.; Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas; and Darren Soto, D-Fla.
The power play by the small band on Friday earned them swift condemnation by Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who herself has rankled leadership during her first couple of weeks in Washington.
“9 Dems are choosing to hold the entire 220+ caucus hostage if we don’t accept their GOP-friendly rules that will hamstring healthcare efforts from the get-go,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Friday. “People sent us here to get things done, not ‘negotiate’ with an admin that jails children and guts people’s healthcare.”
9 Dems are choosing to hold the entire 220+ caucus hostage if we don’t accept their GOP-friendly rules that will hamstring healthcare efforts from the get-go.
People sent us here to get things done, not “negotiate” with an admin that jails children and guts people’s healthcare. https://t.co/ih8ygftjHo
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 23, 2018
Pelosi needs to win a majority of her conference’s support in a private meeting Wednesday before her candidacy is considered on the floor on Jan. 3.
She also faced an insurrection from 16 Democrats last week when they signed a letter saying they would not vote for her in either venue. However, that effort has wavered as the top prospect to challenge Pelosi, Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, agreed to back Pelosi in exchange for a subcommittee chairmanship and one of the letter’s signatories, New York Rep. Brian Higgins, defected.
