Speaker McCarthy Selects Unruly House Rules Panel
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) issued the new GOP roster for the House Rules Committee Monday, and he made good on his pledges to give his conference’s hard right three positions on the powerful panel, which decides along with the speaker the bills going to the floor and the scope of amendments and debate.
He named Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) to the panel. All have track records of holding up major spending legislation, emergency disaster aid and forcing votes on divisive amendments against the wishes of GOP leadership.
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Norman and Roy were among those initially opposing McCarthy’s speaker bid, and Massie in the past has been a real pain for GOP leadership plans.
Key for the Ag Sector
Norman in the past unsuccessfully pushed crop insurance amendments that would have cut premium incentives/subsidies by 15% for producers with specified adjusted gross incomes. Another amendment, co-sponsored by Norman, would have effectively muted the harvest price option.
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Bottom Line
If Norman, Massie and Roy are in agreement, they can functionally block legislation, even bills McCarthy supports, from getting to the floor — unless McCarthy and his allies can garner Democratic votes on the legislation. But the minority usually votes no on the 9-4 split panel.
