Democrats on Thursday approved several changes in the way they’ll run the House, including provisions aimed at boosting staff diversity, allowing religious headwear to be worn, and making it easier to raise the debt ceiling.
Lawmakers voted 234-197 in favor of the changes sought by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who lost just three Democratic votes along the way.
That small handful of Democrats opposed language in the rules that require new spending to be paid for with new taxes or offset with spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.
Democrats, including Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said these so-called PAYGO rules would prevent new Democratic initiatives favored by progressives, such as “Medicare for All.”
“It is terrible economics,” Khanna tweeted before the vote.
Republicans mostly opposed the rules package, and many GOP lawmakers rose to argue against the debt ceiling provision. Under the rules change, when the House votes on an annual budget resolution, which is used as a spending framework for the upcoming fiscal year, the debt ceiling would automatically be lifted.
The rules package allows a simple majority to raise taxes on the upper 20 percent of income earners, overturning the three-fifths requirement that had been required for all income levels.
“This package does not rise to fiscal responsibility,” said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark.
But Democrats called their rules changes historic and a reflection of the change voters called for in November, when Republicans were voted out of the House majority.
“This Democratic majority is giving all members a voice, we are listening to the American people and we are holding the administration accountable,” said Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
The rules package also creates a new climate committee dominated by Democrats and it calls for convening another new panel aimed at modernizing the way the House functions and addressing staff diversity.
The rules package will end the longtime ban on hats or head coverings in the chamber to accommodate freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
