Republicans in the House plan to try to change the rules to create ranking minority members on committees and grant the minority leader, not speaker, the right to appoint minority members of committees.
House Resolution 1 has already been introduced by Minority Whip Dan Foley, and would allow the minority leader to designate a minority member of each committee as its ranking member. Foley said a second resolution will soon be introduced that would grant authority to appoint minority members to committees to the minority leader.
That power is currently given to the speaker. The proposals come after House Republicans were upset with committee assignments handed to the GOP by Speaker Ben Lujan.
“The speaker didn’t give us assignments the way we asked them to be,” Foley said. “We think we should be able to place our members on committees in a way we think best advances our agenda.”
For example, Foley said, Republicans wanted Rep. Paul Bandy, a rancher from Aztec, on the Agriculture and Water Resources Committee, but he was not one of the three Republicans named to the seven-member committee.
Rules changes require a two-thirds vote of House members, or a majority vote following a recommendation from the Rules and Order of Business Committee.
Foley said the changes would help the minority party better organize and give it a voice.
“I think there is a role for the minority party – regardless of which party that minority is – in the system,” Foley said. “Right now, in
The resolution also seeks a rule change that would stipulate that no member of the powerful Appropriations and Finance Committee can chair any other “substantive” committee. It would also prohibit any House member from being chair or vice chair of more than one committee.