House Rules to Know for the 119th Congress

Updated January 9, 2025

Author: Chenelle Hammonds, Senior Policy Associate (chenelle@progressivecaucuscenter.org)

Introduction 

On January 3, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted rules governing the body for the 119th Congress (2025-2026). These rules will affect power dynamics in the House, the legislation the body votes on, and much more. Below is a brief breakdown of notable new House rules. This list is not exhaustive.

The full rules package, as approved by the House, is available here. Additional analysis, including regarding rules that were discarded from the 118th Congress, is available here.

Notable New Rules for the 119th Congress 

Higher Threshold to Depose a Speaker

Under the new House rules, a vote on whether to remove the House Speaker can only occur at the request of nine or more majority party members. During the last Congress, any individual member could force a vote on ousting the Speaker, regardless of their party affiliation. This rule facilitated former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) removal on October 3, 2023. 

Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee James McGovern (D-MA) notes that this change will, “for the first time in American history, shield the Speaker from accountability to the entire chamber by making it so that only Republicans can move to oust the Speaker.” Additional analysis regarding this change and its implications is available here.

Fewer Days to Vote on Bipartisan Bills

The rules permit the Speaker to allow votes under “suspension of the rules” on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays only. Bills considered under the suspension of rules—referred to as “suspensions”—require a ⅔ majority vote to pass, receive a maximum of 40 minutes of debate, and cannot be amended. They also allow the Speaker to call a vote without the Rules Committee’s approval or a “rule” to govern the terms of debate. This is meant to facilitate faster passage of legislation.

In the House, the Rules Committee acts as a traffic cop, determining which legislation will receive a vote and setting the parameters for debate on that legislation (i.e., how long debate will last, how many amendments—if any—will be considered, etc.). The resolution that sets those parameters is referred to as “the rule.” The rule governing debate for a specific piece of legislation must be voted on before that legislation can receive a vote. It is typical for the majority party to vote for the rule and for the minority party to oppose it.

These “rule” votes proved problematic for House Republicans to pass throughout the last Congress. Thus, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) repeatedly used the suspension process to get must-pass bills over the finish line, including the December 20, 2023 vote to keep the government open. The new Monday-Wednesday rule will limit opportunities for the Speaker to exercise that option. This could pose an issue when current government funding expires on March 14—a Friday.

While the Monday-Wednesday rule was in place prior to the 117th Congress, the rule permitted suspension votes during a legislative session’s final six days. The new rule includes no such exception.

Reverting to Gendered Language

During the last Congress, the House’s Code of Official Conduct defined “relative” as “parent, child, sibling, parent's sibling, first cousin, sibling's child, spouse, parent-in-law, child-in-law, sibling-in-law, stepparent, stepchild, stepsibling, halfsibling, or grandchild.” The new rules reinstate gendered terms (e.g., “father,” “mother,” “son,” “daughter”) that were in place prior to the 117th Congress. 

The change is ostensibly part of House Republicans’ ongoing efforts to enact policies that exclude LGBTQ+ and gender-nonconforming people. It is also worth noting that, while language mandating bathroom use based on assigned gender at birth was not explicitly included in the rules package, it has been officially adopted through the Speaker’s existing discretionary authority. 

Expediting Specific Bills

The rules package sets up debate on 12 bills that the House may vote on under regular order (that is, with a simple majority vote required for passage), without allowing consideration in the relevant committees, an opportunity for members to propose amendments, or a rule to govern debate on each particular bill (see “Fewer Days to Vote on Bipartisan Bills” above for more on a “rule’s” purpose). This approach will allow House Republicans to fast-track the passage of controversial priority bills with minimal resistance, notwithstanding a slim majority. Several of these bills passed the Republican-controlled House last Congress, and must still overcome the Senate filibuster to become law. 

The list of bills includes several immigration-related bills, legislation targeting trans athletes, and more:

  1. Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act (H.R. 28)

  2. The Laken Riley Act (H.R. 29)

  3. Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act (H.R. 30) 

  4. Police Act (H.R. 31) 

  5. No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act (H.R. 32) 

  6. Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act (H.R. 35) 

  7. Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (H.R. 21) 

  8. Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act (H.R. 23) 

  9. United States-Taiwan Expedited Double-Tax Relief Act (H.R. 33) 

  10. SAVE Act (H.R. 22) 

  11. HALT Fentanyl Act (H.R. 27).

  12. Protecting American Energy Production Act (H.R. 26)

Rules Retained from the Last Congress 

The House kept several rules from the 118th Congress in place, such as the “Holman Rule,” which permits members to propose amendments to appropriations bills that target specific federal workers by reducing their salaries or firing them. This allows members of Congress to get around protections for civil servants and target federal workers with whom they disagree. 

Another renewed provision mandates that the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sign off on document requests for the Executive Branch. Effectively, this allows the House majority to veto requests for information from Democratic committee members, and makes committee and staff research and oversight more partisan.

The CPC Center thanks Daniel Schuman at the American Governance Institute for his comments and insights.