Oklahoma Congressman Assesses Changes Made To House Rules

Oklahoma Congressman Josh Brecheen was one of the 20 hardline conservatives who held up the election of Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week in order to gain concessions on a wide range of House rules. He said he is encouraged that the stand they took was worth the stress it caused.

“Last week was very intense, and thankfully this week…” Rep. Brecheen smiled as he trailed off, clearly indicating this week, the House’s first week of legislative business, has been far less intense.

Rep. Brecheen (R-OK2) is proud of the changes he and his colleagues brought about, particularly those intended to, as he has said, “restore fiscal sanity” to Congress. And what’s become clear to him, he said, is that many other members are pleased with the changes as well.

“Even the members that said, ‘Man, that was rough’…there’s gratitude because of what we accomplished, the 20, is going to pay dividends for everyone,” Brecheen said in an interview Thursday.

The change Brecheen believes will pay the biggest dividend, as far as achieving his primary goal of getting spending under control, is bringing back an open amendment process where any member can try to amend a spending bill from the floor.

“A single member from the floor can put an amendment on the bill,” said Brecheen, “and so more sunshine, more ability to deliberate -- I kept advocating for that in negotiations and we got the ability to put spending cut amendments on all general appropriations bills.”

Brecheen said there were open amendments 25 years ago when House Republicans, as part of their Contract with America, helped bring about a balanced budget. It's something he also hopes to eventually achieve.

In addition to open amendments, Brecheen said other changes -- requiring the passage of the 12 individual appropriations bills rather than lumping them into an omnibus, giving members at least 72 hours to read each bill, and prohibiting amendments that aren't germane -- will discourage wasteful spending.

Another agreement -- capping FY 2024 spending at FY 2022 levels – will force lawmakers to make difficult but important choices, even for the military.

“We were at $4.5 trillion total spend just two years ago, we’re now at $6 trillion,” Brecheen explained. “I’m not one of those that doesn’t believe that every area of governance can’t find ways through auditing and other ways to make sure they’re being most efficient with their dollars without impacting the mission. I believe economic security is national security. But there are other ways to protect defense and there are other areas of that discretionary spending that we can go after much more aggressively, making sure that we do have a strong defense.”

The bottom line, he said, under previous rules, too much power was consolidated in too few people – notably, the speaker and the nine members of the Rules Committee, who could control which bills and amendments made it to the floor.

“We are going after that consolidation of power,” Brecheen stated, “because we believe that more than just 10 people have good ideas in Congress.”

Brecheen and his House colleagues will be in the home districts next week. When they return to Washington the following week, the Senate will also be back in session for the first time in this new Congress.