On the Hill

Boehner: Time for New Rules

Will allow for more debate, amendments on bills.

It’s time for a new way of doing things, says incoming Speaker of the House John Boehner, and the GOP has pledged to make some serious adjustments to congressional rules that dictate how bills are passed. It’s customary for the incoming Congress to tweak the rules, but Boehner's adjustments—which are not popular among Democrats—are considered more large-scale. For instance, he wants to do away with large omnibus spending bills and have them broken up into smaller bills, and he wants to allow for more amendments on bills and more extensive debate. Also, for the first time under the new House rules, all bills will be required to be placed online. But the big exception will be the health-care bill Republicans hope to repeal next week—when brought to the floor, it will not have to abide by the new rules.