Murphy Votes Against Partisan House Rules Package

Washington, D.C. – On Monday, January 4, 2021, the House Democrats passed H. Res. 8 outlining the rules for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 117th Congress. The rules package significantly alters the Motion to Recommit (MTR), a procedural motion used since the very 1st Congress, and one guaranteed to the Minority Party since 1909. The MTR gives the Minority Party a chance for their voice to be heard and is the last chance to amend a bill before it is put up to vote for passage. In the 116th Congress, eight MTRs proposed by Republicans were passed in bipartisan votes.

The rules package also institutes speech codes for Members' social media pages and prohibits members from using words such as father, mother, son or daughter on the House floor. In addition, H. Res. 8 repeals a longstanding rule for certain legislation pertaining to COVID-19 and climate change known as PAYGO that requires bills to dictate how they will be paid for. The rules also provide for proxy-voting, which allows members to vote remotely rather than traveling to Washington, D.C.

Congressman Greg Murphy, M.D. (NC-03) released the following statement after opposing the measure on the House floor:

"Democrats claim to care about diversity, but in reality it is diversity in everything except thought," said Murphy. "The 117th Congress's rules package clearly demonstrates that. The MTR gives the minority party a chance to put their best foot forward and offer bipartisan ideas to improve legislation. Republicans improved eight bills last Congress with bipartisan MTR votes, and although that was a boon for the American people, it wasn't for Nancy Pelosi's radical progressive agenda. Her cowardly move is an attempt to protect her party from taking hard votes. This action indicates that Democrats do not want to be forced to defend their beliefs in the public arena. Unfortunately, because of her smaller majority in the House, all Nancy Pelosi wants to do is consolidate her power. In reality this is the beginning of ushering in one-party rule and subsequently socialism. These actions are a blatant attack in suppressing the ideas of the Minority Party.

"The speech policing instituted by these rules clearly violates the First Amendment. The PAYGO repeal is irresponsible and indicative that, once again, Democrats don't want to defend their draconian climate change tax and spend measures like the Green New Deal in public. And finally, some Democrats don't even want to show up to do their job in the public square in the first place, so they are continuing with proxy voting. This partisan rules package is a disaster for the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives and it's a disaster for the American people," concluded Murphy.