House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) hopes to be speaker when Republicans return with the majority in January. And he already has the support of the vast majority of his GOP colleagues, 188 of them. But he needs 30 more to get to the 218 that will overcome Democratic opposition.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus are withholding their support and demanding various procedural changes in exchange for their votes. There is a neat and desirable solution, for many of the Freedom Caucus’s demands would return the House to a better way of operating. Thus, McCarthy can win the backing of his colleagues and, at the same time, seize a historic opportunity to make at least one side of Congress function better.