One-Vote Rule to Vacate Chair Likely Changed by Year's End

"Fading fast" is the way House Republicans and their staffers increasingly describe the threat of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to call for a vote by the full House to vacate the speaker's chair.

Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., went a step further Tuesday, describing Greene's threat as "dead."

Given the likelihood that House Speaker Mike Johnson will wield his gavel throughout the rest of the year, a growing number of his fellow Republicans are now telling Newsmax of their hopes to change the rule that dethroned former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and until recently threatened Johnson: that a single member can call for a motion to vacate the chair, resulting in an immediate vote by the full House.

"I sure would support changing that rule," Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich.," told Newsmax.

Walberg's fellow Michigan Republican, Rep. Bill Huizenga, agreed, telling us "we've had enough chaos here. Changing the rule makes sense."

"We should change the rule," echoed Iowa's GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson.

Although many of the 112 Republicans who opposed the portion of the supplemental package are thought to be against raising the threshold required to declare the chair vacant, some of the "no" votes are thought to be favorable to making the change. Among them are Reps. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, Bill Posey of Florida, and Morgan Griffith of Virginia.

Many Democrats are also considered open to changing the controversial rule. With the "one-vote" requirement for a vote on a motion to vacate on the House rule books since the 1700's — and actually acted on four times, the last leading to McCarthy's downfall last year — it was Nancy Pelosi who orchestrated a change in the rules when she became speaker in 2019. Under the so-called "Pelosi Provision," it would take a majority of either the Republican or Democratic Conferences to bring a motion to vacate the chair to the House floor.

Last year, however, McCarthy reluctantly agreed to restore the one-vote requirement at the insistence of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. in order to secure his vote for speaker. It was Gaetz who later used the restored motion to bring down McCarthy a few months later.