The Republican Party’s leadership in the House of Representatives announces a new set of rules, raising the motion to leave the threshold

Republicans in the House of Representatives announced an agreement Wednesday evening to raise the threshold to invoke a motion to leave the speaker’s chair, in exchange for amendment changes.

The motion to vacate the rule currently only allows one member of Congress to call for a vote of no confidence against the speaker. The new agreement increases that threshold to nine.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus and the pro-government Republican Main Street Caucus had been in talks Speaker Mike Johnson – about changes to the motion to evict, according to three Republicans involved in the conversations. An internal party rule change would defuse the procedural weapon used to remove Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, from power. In return, Republican lawmakers would not push for changes that would punish members for voting against the rule.

If Johnson can successfully raise the threshold, it would remove a major problem for him in the next Congress, where CNN predicted on Wednesday that Republicans will have a majority in the House of Representatives. The GOP conference is expected to approve the deal Thursday.

Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said the new agreement would be able to “eliminate the controversial issues” to “realize” President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.

“We know who our speaker candidate is at this point, and we have been able to work throughout the conference to eliminate the controversial issues that could have divided us and move forward together to deliver on the president’s agenda, Harris said. “That’s it. That is what the American people expect from us, and today the first steps have been taken, very concrete steps.”

South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson, a member of the Main Street group, said the agreement will remove amendments “that would have likely divided this conference.”

“We had the opportunity to move the motion to vacate to a higher level than number one, that motion to vacate will be raised to nine in exchange for getting rid of some amendments that would have likely divided this conference. Andy did a good job explaining to Main Street leadership why these amendments would have divided the Republican conference,” Johnson said.

The motion to vacate is a rarely used procedural tool – and McCarthy is the only speaker to have been deposed by passing a resolution to remove them. But threats about its use can be a powerful way to put pressure on a speaker.

To win over critics and secure the gavel from McCarthy and his allies last year made a series of concessions to the conservativesincluding restoring any member’s ability to file a motion to evict. Republicans in the House of Representatives ousted McCarthy as speaker in October 2023 and, after three weeks of infighting, chose Johnson to lead the conference.

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