Freedom Caucus chair moves to undo rogue floor procedure call
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, has nullified a rogue floor procedural move he pulled off with outgoing Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) last week that raised questions about whether he would face any consequences.
While presiding over the House chamber in a pro forma session on Election Day, when leaders were scattered across the country, Harris approved a motion from Good to kill required consideration of a Social Security bill that drew criticism from conservatives.
Harris ignored the directions and objections of House staff in approving Good’s unanimous consent request, a major break of protocol for the sessions that are typically only minutes long and have no significant legislative activity, but are held for constitutional reasons.
But Tuesday, Harris went to the House floor to undo the move.
“I ask unanimous consent that the order of the House on Nov. 5, 2024, regarding H.R. 82, be vacated,” Harris said. His request was granted.
The bill in question is the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate provisions that reduce benefits for some government retirees. While it has broad bipartisan support, it was at the center of controversy among the House GOP in September, when enough Republicans joined with Democrats to sign on to a discharge petition to force a vote on the bill.
Some GOP critics not only disagreed with the underlying legislation, seeing it as too expensive, but also saw the tactic of going around leadership and using a discharge petition to force a vote as a major breach of party loyalty. Successful discharge petitions are very rare.
Though the move from Good and Harris to kill the requirement to consider the bill was successful at the time, it was largely a moot issue; House GOP leadership had already prepared a way to bring up the bill under suspension of the rules, a different process that requires two-thirds support for approval but is faster than the discharge petition requirements.
The procedural kerfuffle, though, did secure for conservatives an alternative bill to address the Social Security issue. H.R. 5342, the Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act of 2023, was also added to the House suspension calendar after the move from Harris and Good.
Good told The Hill on Friday that he hoped House GOP leaders would not take up the Social Security Fairness Act.
“We’ve given leadership, now, the opportunity to escape what they said they didn’t like and didn’t want, which was a discharge petition for the bill,” Good said. “The bill didn’t come to the floor through the normal process. And so we’ve given leadership an exit round.”
“I hope they’ll take the exit round, that they won’t try to get back on the freeway to $200 billion that overcorrects the admitted inequities in the WEP,” Good said, referring to the Windfall Elimination Provision, the formula that can reduce benefits for workers who receive pensions.
But now that Harris undid the Election Day pro forma move, leaders will again be required to bring up the bill.
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